A White Christmas Morning!

Christmas and kids just go together. Don't you think? The anticipation for the receiver of the gift is too much sometimes, but also the gift giver is equally excited to give the gift! My children, now that they are older, like to drag Christmas out because they love the surprise factor of it all.

Micah's first Christmas was last year but he was only 4 months old! This year at 16 months he could really get into it. I'm not sure he understood what we were doing but he went along with it no problem!

It finally stopped snowing on Christmas Eve around 9:00 p.m. so it froze and stayed all night long. This is what we woke up to! A White Christmas! A first for Texas since 80 years ago!

Looking down our street.

The backyard does not get as much sun so it stuck around much longer.

I won't bore you with all of us discovering our stockings but Micah was too cute to pass up.

He got a few toys and a banana in his stocking. I guess he wasn't impressed because he kept trying to steal all of the chocolate that came out of other people's stockings! Here he had finally gotten away and ran to a corner to check it out. He was hoping that I wasn't looking but of course, I see everything!

Rolos were the prized possession.

No, don't take my picture!

While I made breakfast the kids went out to play in the snow.

What a wonderful gift from God to have snow on Christmas morning!

It has been so long since I've heard and felt the crunch of snow beneath my shoes! This is Micah discovering the powdery white stuff!

The boy's main goal was to have a snow ball fight.

The girl's wanted to build a snow man.

Julia is having a good time!

She looks so savvy in her red jacket!

Meet Mr. and Mrs. Snowman. We actually named them after friend's who announced their engagement on Christmas, Nathan and Susanna.

Eating snow is a must . . .

But it's really cold!

This year the kids drew names out of a hat of who they needed to buy for. No one knew who had who until Christmas morning. This was one of the best surprises of all!

I took each of them shopping for their person and then out for a treat. It was great fun. AJ had Olivia and he bought her this drawing book and a necklace.

Olivia drew Julia's name and she bought her fuzzy slipper socks, gloves and some of her favorite crackers.

Reece drew AJ and he bought him two science kits.

Julia drew Reece's name. She bought him a craft to paint.

I've finally learned that toddlers don't need a lot of toys to be happy. All they do is clutter up the house while the child goes and unloads the tupperware drawer in the kitchen! I did want to give Micah something new for Christmas so we got him this phone. He loves to push buttons and hear music. He always wants to play with our "real" phone which is off limits, so we got him one of his own.

Hello? Hello?

This is a hammy down (not sure if that is spelled correctly) toy. I drug this out of the shed and wrapped it up for Micah. All of my children have played with this at his age so I figured it was time to get it out. It comes with 3 balls and it's your basic castle maze. Kids this age love to watch the balls drop down the different shoots and roll out the bottom.

Where did that ball go? Here it comes!

More importantly than the gifts, candy and snow, is the reason we celebrate. Jesus came to earth, born as a baby, to redeem his people from their sins. With a forgiven heart, we can live in peace, knowing our Savior's love and good plans He has for us.

May we live with a thankful spirit and reflect that joy to those around us. He is the reason for the season!