The one's that didn't make it...

Open your eyes!

Please? Open your eyes!

Not sure what's going on here

I'm pretty sure Anna has two legs.

Seriously Park! Open your eyes!

Once again, not sure what happened here.

Again with the one-leg?

So close! If only her shoe was ON!

We're all losing it now.

Looking a little sad which is how we all kinda felt!

About as good as it's going to get!

It's the little things...

Parker came home today and insisted that I open the present he made for me at school. It was a class cookbook. Everyone in his class provided their favorite holiday recipe and then the parent gave the correct recipe. Parker submitted cinnamon rolls. Here is his recipe...

Ingredients: cinnamon, rolls, frosting

Instructions:

1. Get some cinnamon

2. Get some rolls

3. Put cinnamon rolls in the oven at 200 degrees

4. Take them out

He wrapped it by himself with "special" gold ribbon!

Anna was equally excited to give me her present and insisted that I open it so that we have time to enjoy it before it has to be put away. It was a glass ornament with the most precious little handprint on it. It's such a beautiful addition to the tree!

The cute bag the ornament came in!

These are my favorites! The little gifts that they make that they put so much into and the joy and excitement they feel when they bring them home and pull them out of their backpacks make them so much sweeter. Honestly, there's nothing better! Years (and years) from now I will still cherish these precious little gifts from Parker and Anna!

A Festivus Miracle!

That's what I've been calling it! Snow in Houston! It was like my own personal little gift from above! Really! I LOVE snow (around Christmas) and was REALLY disappointed I wasn't going to see any this year but then the forecasters talked about an arctic blast coming in from Canada that would most likely bring snow. Really? I'm not that lucky but it was the talk of the town for days. Then, while I was out and about on my way to do a little Christmas shopping some tiny little slushy drops fell from the sky. My friend called to see if I was excited about it AND told me that school was releasing early because of the weather. WOW! The school is calling it a snow day because of this?! By the time I got to the mall the slushy little drops had a hint of white to them and people were outside the mall looking up at the sky and taking pictures with their phones. Ahh...that's cute, I thought and continued into the mall.

I only went to a couple of stores because I was in a hurry due to the whole early release at school thing and you can not imagine the joy I felt when I could see from the glass doors looking out a full blown, just like Utah snow storm! Huge white flakes falling from the sky! It looked beautiful, magical even!

Elated, I headed home. I couldn't wait to see the joy I felt mirrored on Parker and Anna's face. I knew they would feel the same way and of course, they both were thrilled! They dumped their backpacks and headed outside for the cul-de-sac snowball fight of all snowball fights. Everyone was out! Kids hitting parents, parents hitting kids, parents hitting parents!

Eventually, the war ended. Everyone retreated into their own homes for a little warmth and alot of hot cocoa.

It's funny. In Utah, it would be considered "a dusting". Here, it shut the town down. School let out early. Aaron's office closed early. Anna had a party to go to at the Little Gym but even they were closing due to the weather. I kind of giggled about it but then I thought, maybe, it's not because it's so dangerous to be in, but because EVERYBODY wanted to be able to enjoy it and I think that's a pretty neat thing.

Anyway, here are some pictures of the winter wonderland!