Christmas morning had finally arrived for me and it brought a surprise with it too! Now just so you know it does not snow in Oregon very often and when I saw this I was pretty shocked that it had. I even had to ask someone if that was really snow outside or not. But when you get a look at the bigger picture........
You can see it really didn't snow. Just some frost but I am fine with that too. I do like how pretty frost can be in the morning light but I am sad you can't play in it the way you can with snow. Well at least we were able to enjoy the beautiful and very cold morning that we were given.
Happily we also got to enjoy the view by a warm fire that dad was kind enough to get going for all of us. It just makes the moment all the better. Now believe it or not but Michael's family has another interesting tradition that they do. When all of us kids wake up in the morning we have to stay upstairs until mom and dad are awake. You don't even get to peek at the presents at all!! Now this is WAY different then what we do in my family. Well when we are told it is okay to come out of our rooms us kids line up on the stairs in order of age and take another picture of us together.
Here is this years family stairs picture. After we get our picture taken we are allowed to come down and see what Santa has brought. However this year Michael and I were sleeping in the living room so we got around the system a little.
Here is my very handsome husband all excited to see what he has gotten for Christmas.
If you can't tell Hope is very excited too. So I guess we better get this show on the road and stop making everyone wait but first, MERRY CHRISTMAS MORNING TO ALL!!!
Okay, Michael took this picture. I can't help it but I just love using Hope as my pillow. I am lucky enough that she doesn't mind me doing that either. In fact, I think she might like it since it gives her all the love and attention that she wants.
It was funny how 
Julie was our wonderful music accompaniment for our Christmas caroling for the family program. She was so good to play the songs that we wanted to sing and that is without practicing them before hand too. It was really nice to hear Julie play the piano again, I miss that.
Maren was the other fun photographer of the night. Aren't you glad to know that I'm not the only one that loves to take pictures? Okay, mine is probably more of a obsession but hey at least I am loving it.
Now remember how I said we would do a big group picture? Well Maren had a great idea to do the fun little pictures together. So here is Maren and me holding our cute little and very tired puppies.
Michael and I also had to get a family Christmas Eve photo. I guess it isn't only the dogs that were tired. Michael and I were ready to hit the sack after a very long but fun day with the family.
"Did you hear some sleigh bells? Could Santa be coming to the house already?"
"QUICK! Pretend you are asleep so we can get our presents."
Sadly it wasn't Santa coming to the house yet. We still have to wait a few more hours for him to show up. However it didn't keep Hope away from sitting up by the Christmas tree waiting for Santa to come (or at least until we forced her to go to bed for the night).
Well goodnight to one and all and to all a very merry Christmas night.
Michael and I loved how there was snowflakes hanging down instead of the normal icicles. It is just nice to see something different. I'm also sure the owners of this house will love the fact that when they have to take the lights down these wont tangle up like icicle lights would.
Now that I gave my spiel on icicle lights I just had to share a picture of some. These lights just reminded me of what my dad would have up on our house. The only difference is that the lights my dad puts on our house is red, not blue and white.
This house light display was totally Michael's favorite. I just hope that when we do have a house of our own that he doesn't decorate to much like this. I can just imagine the electric bill. Yikes!
But I guess I am no better because I just loved this house light display. My most favorite part is the little sled and reindeer that seem to be floating across the top of the house. It was just a really cute idea that they had. I also like the more elegant colored light look it has to it too.
Now normally Michael and I do not like the blow up decorations but this one just got us laughing really good. I love how the reindeer finally got a brake this year and got to ride along instead of pulling and doing a lot of hard work. Now of course we were not the only ones out on Christmas Eve that night but something extra interesting happened while we were out looking at the lights.
We saw a person crossing the road. No big deal right? Well look a little closer at the outfit.
The picture may be a little fuzzy but can you tell who it is?
SANTA!!! That's right! We got to see Santa while we were out looking at lights. Michael was the one driving so of course we made him stop just to make sure our eyes were not playing tricks on us. Santa then actually came up to our car and gave us all a really BIG candy cane to have. Hope was with us but she didn't get a candy cane. But that is okay since she got a doggie treat instead. I wish you all could have seen just how excited Hope was to meet Santa. It was the first time that she has gotten to meet Santa. Last year we had to do/make our own 
As we left Santa we saw this count down to Christmas on someones lawn. It was sad to think that we had about four more hours (or more) to wait until Santa was going to be coming to our house.
The last thing that we saw before going home was this very cute Mr. and Mrs. Santa Claus decoration. It just really made us smile and think that is how cute we want to be when we are older. I just hope when that happens Michael doesn't have to go out and deliver toys to children all over the world. I don't think I would see him for several months.
He was able to make it work just fine as you can see. I know you really can't see his face but that is him.
However, in this picture it looks like his sleeve in on FIRE! Good thing it really wasn't. I so don't know what was up with the camera tonight.
Julie just saying, "Hi," to 
Hope was also outside helping us light up the luminaries. What a dedicated worker she is in continuing her supervising job from earlier that day.
Okay, this picture I just had to share. I find it so funny how these two would walk around in a little line among all of the luminaries. Except for in this picture they are walking away from the house not towards it. Maybe we need to re-tell them the story of why we do luminaries.
The finished product! Yet funny enough you STILL don't see all of the luminaries that we did in this picture. Sorry but it was the best one that I could get and hey, at least you can see for yourself just how beautiful these little luminaries can be all lit up. Just make sure that you don't forget the real reason for enjoying all of these beautiful sites this season. 
Here is Julie showing off her mad ping pong skills. I wouldn't mess with her when it comes to ping pong. The first game that we played was girls against boys, wives against husbands. It was great to have Julie on my team so I could warm up and learn how to play right. Julie was really patient with me and us girls ended up winning the game! The second game was couples against each other, 
It is Michael the double paddle ping pong monster player!!! You better watch out when you play a game against him cause he will smack you down.
Lastly but not least me! I'm the rock hard ping pong guard that the ball will never get by in a million and more years.
Let the ultimate ping pong goof off gaming begin!!!
Michael had the camera and was lucky enough to get this shot of me yelling, "OH NO!" I had accidental hit the ping pong ball behind the freezer again. At least it was easy and kind of fun to get it out from behind the freezer with the idea 
I just love how pumped up Michael gets about ping pong. I really can't wait until we have our own home and a place to set his table up in. I think when that does finally happen we will have a regular ping pong competition day at least once a year. Now with how noisy we were being the other family ping pong pro came out to join in on the fun.
That is right! The other family pro is none other than DAD! Oh the stories that Michael has told me from when they have gotten to play ping pong with one another. I must say that I was a little nerves to be in the room with the two of them.
Especially when a game was about to start between these two. 
RELAX for a moment. It is a long drive after all. Once we were finally re-energized we got down to family tradition business. One Christmas tradition that Michael's family has is to make luminaries to light up the drive way and sidewalks. Michael told me that his family started this tradition when they lived in New Mexico and they have continued to do it since then. I think it is a really fun tradition to do and I have gotten a chance to help out before with getting them ready to put on the drive way so of course I was very excited to do it again this year.
We make a little assembly line to put them together. You have one person open up the bag, the next person puts sand into the bag and then the last person puts the candles in the bag. I was the lucky one that got to put the candles in the bags for both line sides. I figured I could take a few pictures before I had to start working on my job (that is why there are not a lot of pictures cause it is my favorite Christmas job to do and I couldn't wait any longer to help out).
It is a happy family of hard workers. Sure am glad that they are enjoying their jobs cause I don't want to trade mine.
Now this was actually Jordi's first time doing this with the family so I had to take a extra special picture of him helping. It is also Jordi's first time celebrating Christmas with the family too since him and Julie got married earlier this year. I remember my first Christmas with the family and I am sure his is going to be just as fun as mine was.
Funny enough it is also Hope's first time helping to make the luminaries but she mostly just supervised us. Oh, what a big helper we have. Now the bags don't take that long to fill and when you are finally done with most of them you get started on setting them up (helps make space for doing the last of them).
Toffie is the pro at making sure we put all of the luminaries in the right spots.
Here is what the luminaries look like during the day time. I am always amazed at how many luminaries it takes to do this. Believe me when I say it takes way more than it looks. I didn't even get them all in this picture.
With the luminaries all set up the only thing left to do is clean up. I guess Michael needed two supervisors for this job. Once he was finished we all got to do something extra fun! But you will have to wait and see what that was in the next post.
I know it doesn't look like much but I still love it. Doesn't it just make you happy to know that there are people out in the world that are thinking of you? Well it does for me. Now that I have some cards up on my wall I can't wait for the time to take them down and scrapbook them all. Yes, I am strange.