Christmas Day

Ethan was the first to wake up. He started stirring at about 6:30 and we kept him in the bedroom until 7 a.m. Courtney woke up around 6:45 and it was all we could do to keep them quiet until it was time to get up. They were so excited!! Jeff and Andrea were sleeping in the hallway area outside our bedroom and I didn't want to wake them up too early.

Then we let them loose! They were so excited to see their gifts from Santa. He had even left some footprints by the fireplace!!! Ethan got an MP3 player and a iCoaster. Courtney got a doll stroller and they both got movies in their stockings.

After everyone was up we began unwrapping gifts. We go from youngest to oldest and so everyone gets to see what the other people received. It takes a long time with 17 people (well, 14 when it was time for little Carter to eat...oh, I forgot to mention that Lisa had a little baby boy they named Carter on Monday, so their little family was with us) but it was fun. Courtney and Brooke received matching dresses from Grandma, along with shoes, crowns and jewlery. It was so cute to see them all dressed up. Ethan got some remote control cars that he begged anyone around to play with him. It was a fun day!

Oh..and it snowed 2 feet on Christmas Day. The cabin was up on a hill and was right at the top of a road. We took advantage of this and began sledding down the hill. It was so much fun and the road made a great sled hill. Ethan loved it especially and didn't want to stop. I haven't ever been sledding. We always went tubing when I was a kid. We would get huge tire intertubes, inflate them and go down hills on them. I loved it but was always freezing because we always went in jeans or sweats (no snow pants for us). I really enjoyed myself.

After a long time sledding, most people went in to get warm while Andrew, Ruston, Brooke, Ethan and I stayed outside. Andrew got the smart idea that if it was fun to sled down the road, it would be even more fun to sled off the side of the road down the mountain. So he tried. It was fresh powder and really deep so his slide down the side of the hill was slow and ended with him hitting down and being buried in fresh powder. Ethan decided he wanted to follow Uncle Andrew so he went down. His first run wasn't too bad, but the second run he did wasn't too great. By the second time down, the snow had compacted a bit and so Ethan went pretty quickly and was afraid he would be hurt. I ended up having to slide down on my rear end and then carry him on my back through waist-deep snow while Andrew and I trudged to find where the road was so we could get him back to the cabin. But he said he had a great time.

The rest of the day was spent playing with all the new toys and watching new movies. It was a fun day!