happy christmas

this christmas might have to replace mission christmas #2 as the best christmas ever. on christmas eve i was annoyed all day b/c my older sister had called earlier in the week and said they might come down early to beat the snow, but then they decided not to (this year was the other grandparents year for christmas). i was containing my boredom by watching "It's a Wonderful Life" (which i've never seen) when Babes came into the family room literally bouncing up & down with excitement saying "come to dad's office!! come to dad's office!!" i assumed her boyfriend had gotten her a puppy or something but when i came into the foyer, Older Sister was there with Brother-in-Law and the babies! they had decided to drive down early after all & only told Babes so they could surprise the rest of us. as i told the Manorexic on christmas, i was so happy i almost starting crying. but i kept it together.

on christmas itself we opened presents with a very excited 4 year old (the twins were much more interested in the unwrapping process than the actual presents). at noon we got to do video chat with Boy [side note: he returns in 29 hours. if you think i am obsessed you should have a conversation with my father. all day he's been saying things like "well, he should be going to bed right now", "well, he needs to get up in 3 hours", "well, he gets on his plane in 6 hours", etc. also, we have looked at the weather forecasts for every city in which he has a layover]. Boy said if we made a bunch of signs & embarrassed him at the airport, he'd pretend like he didn't know us. after we got off the chat, we made two signs, including one that lights up. Older Sister said, "since when have we respected Boy's wishes?" good point, Older Sister, good point.

also, it snowed all christmas eve night, all day and all night christmas, and all day today. we rarely see snow in TN & i can't remember ever having so much snow on christmas. after church this morning, Babes, the 4 year old niece, & I played in the snow. after several semi-successful attempts at sledding, we decided to build a little snow-girl.

we're hoping the snow sticks around for a few days, b/c as the 4 year old told me this evening, "I want to throw a snowball at Boy!"