It's The Most Wonderful Time Of The Year!!

Christmas has always been one of my favorite holidays of the year (the other favorite being the 4th of July!!) and this year did not disappoint, even without snow. Oh, yes, for all of you who were wondering why I made such a big deal about having a white Christmas last year take a look at these two pictures.

The picture above on the left is Christmas 2011 which depicts a typical Christmas scene in Charlotte, North Carolina. The temperature was 62 degrees on Christmas Day. The kids were outside playing in short-sleeve shirts and no coats. The picture above on the right is the wonderful snow storm we got on Christmas Day 2010.

We were all bundled up in coats, boots and gloves. The picture to the left is my clematis vine just outside my front door in bloom on the day before Christmas. We will most likely be mowing the lawn this weekend because the warm weather has caused the grass to grow.

Since Christmas was on a Sunday this year and we wanted to make sure that the kids remembered that we were celebrating the birth of our Savior we had Santa visit us a night early. It turned out to be a great thing. We had fun on Saturday and spent the day on Sunday attending a special sacrament meeting involving three wards, talking to family and spending time relaxing.

Check out all the Christmas fun below!

Nicholas made sure that Santa was compensated for his willingness to come a whole night early.
This is my torture picture. We made them pose BEFORE they could open a single thing. Can we open them now?

Santa brought Jeremy and Nicholas golf bags and putters to complete their golf sets. They are taking golf lessons and loving it, but now they look like pros. Naomi has been wanting a soft mattress cover for her bed. Santa thought it would go well with her present from Mom and Dad (see below).
The kids and I found this walking stick a couple of weeks before Christmas and had to get it for Daddy. Every hard-working Scoutmaster needs a good walking stick. This one has a fox on it to show everyone that he belongs to the Fox Patrol for Woodbadge (the highest level of training in Boy Scouts!!). He had an REI/scouting Christmas complete with all the camping supplies he needed in order to complete his collection.

Naomi's new bed from Mom and Dad. She now has a desk underneath and a cool bed on top (just like the boys).

Nicholas got a new Lego building station. He can now organize all the pieces and have a place to put everything. Needless to say, we didn't see much of him after all the presents were opened. He was in lego heaven. Jeremy took his hammock he got from us and hung it on his loft bed. That is where he spent most of the day. (Sorry, none of those pictures turned out well)

I got buckets of paint from Steve for Christmas to finish painting the last two rooms downstairs. At first the kids did not understand why I was so excited about cans of paint, but they soon caught the vision and excitement once we started painting.

As you can see, we all got what we wanted and enjoyed our Christmas weekend. We ate our cheeseball, rootbeer floats, doughnuts, Greek potroast, mashed potatoes/gravy and all other things Christmas, but the highlight was getting to talk with family.

We hope you had a wonderful Christmas as well.