White Christmas.

I must confess: When we awoke on Christmas Day to see a blanket of snow still on the ground, I wasn't impressed. Having a "white Christmas" is overrated, I decided. Granted, I was still devastated by the loss of our friend, and I was disappointed that the weather had canceled our church's Christmas Eve service. Plus, my brother-in-law was stuck in Oklahoma, and my sister-in-law wasn't able to drive to Ranger for their Christmas celebration. All that equals one pooty See-Dub. Bah humbug.

But then Tim's wife updated her Facebook status and pointed out that Tim "is in Heaven celebrating with the angels and our Lord and Savior on this beautiful white Christmas morning!" Well, crap. If Amy can see the beauty in this snow, surely I can!






Yes, that would be my son playing in the snow in SHORTS.





Yes, indeedy, that's my daughter in SHIRT SLEEVES! Our kids don't get cold! Rolling all those snow balls helped 'em work up a sweat, too.




In spite of my bad attitude, I have to admit: It was a gorgeous day! Plus, because of the change in plans, Kelly and Chris joined us for Christmas dinner. That was a nice treat.

I even pulled out our wedding china and stainless. As Ryan would say, we had to get all "fancy pants"!

The food was delish, and the company was wonderful. Best of all, while Kelly and Chris were still here, Mike showed up at our door!

Christmas 2009.

It's Christmas morning!

Ryan and Katie (and ChaCha!) first checked out our stockings. They were a little confused since their big Santa presents weren't there or under our big tree.

Found 'em! Santa brought Ryan a game console and Katie an iPod Touch.

"REALLY?!" Ryan was a little surprised to see an XBox 360 under the tree. He thought he was just going to get money to help him buy one.

Brett didn't know what to think of the pooping cow candy dispenser Santa left in his stocking.

Santa didn't leave out ChaCha and Frisco, but they didn't get the candy dispensers. With those two, poop is no laughing matter.

I think the kids like their presents.

Among our gifts were...the New Moon soundtrack,

a Texas glass globe ornament,

a sweet letter and $5,

a Beatles calendar,

Atari boxers,

a picture of our family,

and a belly rub.

I was taking pictures (duh), but I was blessed to receive gift cards that Brett and I can use for dates (!!!!), a Sandra Boynton Mom calendar (that I can't live without), and the special edition West Side Story DVD set. I love them all!

While Katie started adding apps to her iTouch, Ryan wasted no time setting up his 360. Ever the stickler, ChaCha helped by following the box's directions:

Good kitty!

Decked halls.

It was fun decorating for our first Christmas in our new house.



We kept most of our traditions, like putting the kids' "first Christmas" pix by our stockings.

ChaCha and Frisco got new stockings this year! I'd been looking for matching cat/dog stockings and finally found some.

Our big tree ended up in our entryway. We'd prefer having it in our living room, but I love the way the lights reflect off the laminate floor.

I also love that we can see both our family and UT trees from the stairs. In our old house, our Christmas tree lights reflected off the sunroom windows, giving the appearance of many trees. In this house, we have room to actually put up the trees! (More pictures of this year's trees are HERE.)

Dining room

Granny's little angels

and her choirboys. These were in my grandmother's living room for years and years. The candle didn't survive storage that well, but I don't care! I have to put these guys on our piano or it just doesn't feel like Christmas.

Our nutcracker collection

These nutcrackers would say it best:
"There's no place like home!"

No business like dough business.

Some friends came over to spend the night with us Monday, so we made gingerbread people that afternoon.

Katie and Alex are both fans of the "more is more" philosophy!

The result: overloaded and tasty cookies!

I couldn't resist making cookies for our initials plus a Longhorn cookie.

We topped some with frosting and mmm, mmm, MMMMM!!!

Yummy!

While the guys watched movies upstairs, we played Twister and Twister Moves in the living room. It was wonderful that the film buffs could have their space, and we could still have fun without having to listen to their movies! (Yes, we're in LOVE with our house!)

Meanwhile,
ChaCha took it easy in our bedroom!