The best Christmas EVER!!

And this is why:
If I knew this is what I would get when Mark and I decided to forgo presents, I would make that arrangement more often. Hmmm.

I guess Santa forgot about the "no spending money on each other this Christmas" rule too, because last I checked, these don't come cheap!
Oh and the kiddos got a few things under the tree too!
And what is a Christmas post without some fancy outfits, a few snow shots and a ginger bread house?
They only looked liked this for about 5 minutes. Then braids came out and tights came off and we began again. As always, I allotted an extra 15 minutes for the re-dressing processes.

Lately it has been snowing (and snowing and snowing and snowing). These pictures were taken after the first significant snow fall. Since then we have had almost constant snow for a week, with drifts over 2 feet tall! The girls had a blast, although the snow was not packable and therefore Cora's snowman was a bust.
It's a snowman, really. Can't you see the carrot nose?

And finally, our first gingerbread house attempt. It actually turned out quite cute. The girls were eager to finish (and devour) the house. Cora's impatience was evident in a few of the photos (decorating with candy is not quite as much fun as eating it).
Oh and one more thing to note, we had the most magnificent feast of King crab legs, shrimp, ham, desserts and sides galore last night with a bunch of our neighbors (thanks for hosting and feeding us Jason and Kassy!! It was DELICIOUS!!). We will have our family Christmas party tomorrow once all of the siblings have arrived.

So to sum it up:
Disastrous house, check. Undone dishes, check. Bellies full of everything and anything unhealthy, check. Hours spent playing with and reading (and replaying with and rereading) new games, toys and books, check. Plans to spend the entire day un-showered in PJs, check. A very splendid Christmas, check.

Merry Christmas everyone. We hope this day finds you healthy, happy and surrounded by people you love!

ps. I have to share a quick Cora story. This morning, after a pancake breakfast, we went to to turn on the TV in search of a Christmas movie we could watch together. No luck. The satellite was not responding. Mark called Dish Network and they essentially told him he would have to climb up on the roof in Arctic-like conditions to remove the snow/ice that had formed on the dish (he did, it worked, crisis averted). Cora only heard part of the conversation, but what she did hear cemented her belief in Santa. This was her response:

"Oh Santa must have broken the satellite when he landed on the roof with his sleigh. And he probably told us sorry before he left, but we were all asleep so we didn't know."

Seems logical to me!