Life with Mad and Ollie: "May all your Christmases be white"

Well, Christmas has come and gone. But...the snow still remains. Although I am not a huge fan of the cold or the snow, I did enjoy our white Christmas. I think this is the first one I have ever had (besides a few flurries on Christmas morning) and could quite possibly be the last. Evidently this is the most snow ever recorded in Asheville on Christmas day. Last night Philip measured to see how much snow we have total- he measured a whopping 13 inches on our back deck. How's that for a white Christmas?!?!

The kids really enjoyed playing in the snow (after opening tons and tons of presents). Okay...maybe Ollie didn't love it. Ollie has seen snow already this year and doesn't really know what to make of it. He just stared around wondering what on Earth was falling from the sky! Madelyn really enjoyed going out and sticking out her tongue to catch snowflakes since it was still snowing when we went out. As a matter of fact, it snowed ALL day and into the next day too! She also got to play in the snow with family, too (which NEVER happens). Her Grandpa, Aunt Sarah, Uncle Austin, and Aunt Amanda all made it to our house so they played too. They even attempted a snowman- but I don't think he ever got finished. Maybe today we will go out and finish him up!

Now, let's back things up a bit to Christmas morning. Madelyn woke up fairly early on Christmas morning...which if you read my last post, this shouldn't surprise you a bit. And Ollie had already been awake about an hour before Mad! Madelyn came running into my room and said, "mommy, come into my room NOW. Someone left something in there!" She was super excited that she had a brand new flat screen tv on top of her dresser (thanks to Grammy)! Once she showed off her new tv, we ventured downstairs. I don't think she knew what to think when she saw everything Santa had left. At this point Ollie didn't seem to care much.

Then, Madelyn started opening gifts. She was moving faster than the speed of light. Her facial expressions as she opened each gift were priceless! Ollie even got into it after a little time passed! Maybe watching Mad open her gifts inspired him. He spotted an activity table and zoomed across the room towards it. He knew it was his and immediately started pressing the buttons to see what would happen. After all the gifts from Santa were opened things slowed down a bit, the kids had time to play, and we got ready for everyone to come over. At this point it had already been snowing for quite a while so we were grateful that we would still get to see almost everyone (although we didn't make it to Brevard to see Uncle Kevin). Nannie and Poppy soon arrived and handed out more gifts. Madelyn was really excited about her arts and crafts bag from them- she hasn't stopped pulling out art projects since! Then Philip's family came over with even more presents. Our children definitely have more than they will ever need. They are surely loved and we are thankful that everyone adores them as much as we do!!

Here are just a few highlights from the day: