Our First Snow of the Year!

This morning started out with great excitement. Last night we moved the train table into Christian's bedroom. Normally Christian takes awhile to wake up, but this morning he was up at 7:30 and immediately got out of bed and started playing with his trains. It's funny how all you have to do it move something and all the sudden it gets new life. This train table has always been a hit since Christian's friend Noah gave it to him last year, after Noah got some new things for Christmas. But it's 1pm and the train track is still put together and the boys have spent at least 2-3 hours in Christian's room playing. Nate seriously needs some trains of his own since Christian only allows him to play with certain ones. I also have realized that I need to get some Thomas buildings to go with this set up. I think it would make Thomas' adventures even more interesting. All Thomas gets to do right now is go over bridges and crash into other trains.

The next big excitement was the snow. It started snowing around 7am (it wasn't supposed to start until this afternoon) and it has continued to snow all morning. We have at least 3 inches now.
The kids ended up playing in the snow on our way to the car (they were not totally dressed for it). The boys were especially thrilled to see the snow, probably because they have few if any memories of snow from last year. We finally got in the car and headed to our playgroup at church.
After a rather treacherous drive to church we made it to our Christmas party at Moms Connect. I love this picture of the kids getting ready for snack. Look at their hands, they're getting ready to pray.
Nate and Christian enjoying their Christmas brownies!

And here is the reason we HAD to head out in the snow to playgroup this morning. Santa Claus was going to be there and unfortunately I had told Abby about this yesterday. She was worried all morning that he wasn't going to be able to make it. As you can see, he did make it.

Abby was excited to see Santa but a little hesitant about sitting on his lap, so she stood in front of him. On the way home she said to me, "Can you believe he put his arm around me?" She did tell Santa that she wants an American girl doll named "Kit." Not to worry...I know for a fact that it has already been taken care of.

This is the best I could do with the boys. They were excited to see "ho ho ho" but they had no interest in sitting on his lap. Christian did manage to tell him that he wants James (a Thomas Train) for Christmas, but that was about it. This Santa was quite impressive. There was nothing fake about the hair or beard and Christian was thrilled with his jingle bell belt.

Emma just walked home from the bus stop. She got out of school two hours early. This presented a bit of a dilemma for me. I knew that Emma was wearing dress shoes this morning and none of the sidewalks have been shoveled, but all three kids are sleeping so I couldn't really go get her from the bus. The poor girl ended up walking home and her feet were freezing when she got here, but I was more upset about it than she was. I made her some hot chocolate and told her she could watch a Christmas movie while everyone else is napping and she's as happy as can be. The bag you see in her hand is a bag full of surprises for her family. They had a Secret Santa Shop at school today and Grandmom Brinkley gave Emma money so she could go. I'm impressed with Emma's choices for each of her family members. We're going to do a little wrapping this afternoon. I just love how delighted Emma is about giving!!

My word it's been a busy day and we've got hours to go before bedtime!