Christmas Snow!

On December 23rd, the high temperature was in the mid-70's and we were wearing shorts.

On Christmas Eve, it started raining in the morning; the rain quickly turned to sleet, and then to snow. By that evening, there was a pretty good covering of snow on the ground.

The next morning the sun was shining on our first ever white Christmas - it was beautiful!

After opening presents and having breakfast, we bundled up and headed out to enjoy the snow. (We pointed out to the kids that their presents would be there for a long time, but the snow wouldn't last long.)

At the park near our house there is a pretty good little hill, so we walked there for some "Texas sledding" - sledding on cardboard boxes.

By the middle of the afternoon most of the snow had melted and the roads were clear, so we were able to head to East Texas for our Christmas celebration with Robert's family.

Happy Birthday Jesus!

Gingerbread Houses

This year we broke tradition and didn't get to make our gingerbread houses with the Woods family. The Woods have been very busy preparing to adopt their second child from China, so we just couldn't find a time to get together. We are excited for the Woods and can't wait to make gingerbread houses next year with all FIVE of their kids! If your interested in their adoption journey, check out their blog: www.theroadtorhett.blogspot.com. They leave for China the day after Christmas! We love you guys and will be praying for you!

The neighbors happened to be over at our house when I was finally ready for the kids to decorate our gingerbread house, so we invited them to join in. I let them start by decorating individual houses made from graham crackers. They came up with some very unique creations!

The kids loved covering their houses with powdered sugar "snow". They went a little overboard and there was snow everywhere!

After they finished their small houses, we moved on to the big house. I love this picture with Dixie licking the extra frosting from Camden's fingers:

Christmas Parties

The boys both had class Christmas parties at school last week. Camden's party was a snow theme and they got to throw snowballs (from a local sno-cone shop), make ornaments, and make snow to play with (a really neat science project). Cullen's class enjoyed games, a craft, and a book exchange.


Now that Kenna is in middle school, she no longer gets to have a Christmas party at school. So, she invited several of her friends to come home from school with her last Friday for a party. They painted ornaments, decorated gingerbread men, ate pizza, painted nails, and talked, laughed, and giggled - a lot!

ICE!

We had Robert's company Christmas party last Sunday. Since he and his business partner comprise the whole company, we have some flexbility in what we chose to do for the "company party". This year we took our families to Grapevine for the ICE! exhibit at the Gaylord Texan.

The theme of this years exhibit is "Dr. Seuss's How the Grinch Stole Christmas", with scenes from the animated show made of ice.

Part of the exhibit included ice slides that were a lot of fun.

My favorite scene from the show is near the end when all the Who's gather around, join hands, and sing. Christmas comes to Whoville, even without all the "stuff".

I made the kids join hands by this scene for a picture:

The best part of the exhibit was in the last room - a beautiful nativity scene. There was even narration playing, telling the true story of Christmas.

How did Mary and Joseph get to Bethlehem?

... in a spaceship, of course!

(At least according to Camden's version of the story.)

Christmas at the Ranch

On Friday night we went to a ranch in Aubrey for their "Christmas Roundup". We went with some friends and had a great time.

All the kids together:

The girls admiring the lights as we waited for the hayride:

The hayride took us around the ranch to look at their light displays.

The hayride ended at a stable, where we were told the Christmas Story, cowboy style. We entered the stable and found animals in their stalls and Mary and Joseph with the baby Jesus.

After the live nativity, we warmed up with hot chocolate and apple cider.

Santa was there at the ranch in his cowboy hat and boots.

CSI: Canine Edition

Another stuffed animal has lost it's life (or at least its stuffing) at the Pierce home.

Investigators have identified a key suspect in the case:

She tried to deny it, but the evidence against her was compelling. It was hard to ignore that tuft of stuffing on her face. The stuffing has been sent to "trace" to determine if it is a match to that of the victim.

It's been said that a criminal will always return to the scene of a crime. In light of that fact and this photo captured by our team of investigators, I'd say the case is closed.

Molasses Cookies!

Last week we continued one of our favorite holiday traditions - making molasses cookies. My intention was to take them to a few of our neighbors, but we've eaten all of them! I guess I'll have to make another batch!

I used to have to roll the dough into balls for the kids and they would then roll them in the sugar. Now they can do both steps by themselves - my babies are growing up!

Their favorite part is still licking the sugar off their fingers when they're finished:

Camden has to make a production of everything:

Sweet times!