Christmas Day

Other than the snow, there were tons and tons of presents and stuff to do. I like to get Charlie Christmas pajamas to wear Christmas Eve. It's another one of those traditions I use as an excuse to by myself or Charlie new clothes and he sees right through it. However, we found this set of Christmas Lightning McQueen PJs with a matching robe . . . John caved in because he agreed that the robe was adorable. Charlie likes it too, but for other reasons . . .

Remember how I said in my last post that Evans' Christmases are chaos? Here's a taste:

Charlie got a huge haul as usual. We mostly got him small things like a little tool set, a Mr. Potato Head and some other toys that require some amount of imagination to use. His biggest present was technically from Uncle Nathan. They had one of those huge Thomas the Tank Engine trundle tables and wanted to get rid of it. I was very excited for Charlie (but not for me having to keep up with all those little trains and parts) and decided to give it to him for Christmas since it was such a big gift and would never live up to our small presents. He was SUPER excited about it and plays with it constantly. My parents got him tons of books, Batman stuff and a dog pillow pet.

John and I exchanged presents and we both wound up giving each other some weird presents. I guess when you've been together for almost a decade you start to run out of present ideas! I got John a 30 year old bottle of Coke. No, really. It was a Coke bottle from 1980, the year Georgia won the National Championship . . . Coke printed a commemorative bottle in celebration and I found one on Etsy. I put it in a display case and everything. And yes, it still had Coke in it.

John had warned me ahead of time that one of his presents was weird. I didn't worry since he is an amazing gift giver. He can pick stuff out for me better than I can for myself. However, this year he got me a tool kit. I seriously didn't know what to think at first. It was a pink and yellow kit so at least it was in my favorite colors. He said he thought it would be useful for making purses and actually, it has come in handy. They are really nice tools and I like that I don't have to steal stuff from my mom or John anymore. Of course, now they are starting to steal tools from me . . .

We got a bunch of other stuff so we are happy and blessed. It was a good Christmas.

White Christmas 2010

Christmas morning, we woke up to this:

Isn't it gorgeous? I've only had one other White Christmas as a kid and it was more like a Wintry Mix Christmas. It was more slush than snow but still exciting for Tennessee. My brother and my sister's families somehow made it over in the snow and everyone played in the snow. Unfortunately, I had come down with a flu/cold virus thing (that I'm STILL trying to get over!) the day before so I didn't feel up to playing outside. Though, it was nice to have an hour or two of peace inside the house . . . Christmas (just like everything else) is total chaos with my family. John was a good sport and took pictures (after everyone nagged him over and over).

Ethan's girlfriend Lauren lives the next street over so she came with her dog, Jammy. Charlie LOVES Jammy so he was excited to play with him. He would make little snowballs and toss them in the air for Jammy to catch and eat.

Our road was covered in snow so it was perfect to sled on.

My niece Eloise hugging the Chinese snowman. My family is not racist they just think it's funny to pretend to be . . . which kind of makes them sort of racist. I don't know . . . I had no part in the making of the snowman!

Christmas Eve 2010

John, Charlie and I spent most of Christmas Eve at John's parents' house. Before we left, I went ahead and gave my nieces their presents: I made them these candy wrapper headbands and bows. They came out kinda cute.

I have no idea what these kids are doing. My side of the family is so weird. I love how Charlie is doing a loser "L" with his hand, though.

At the Flynns, Grandpa helped some of the grandkids read the Christmas story from the scriptures. Then, it was present time.

Charlie and his cousin Ethan got these cool wooden trucks and cars. They were busy the rest of the night! Scott got John a super nice Georgia polo and I got a gift card to Ross from Jarom. Uh, yes, it's already gone! Hee!

Charlie's cousin Ryan (left), Charlie and Ethan in the background. I love how much Charlie and Ryan look alike. Though, Ryan is a much sweeter kid than Charlie, I must admit!

The weather had been calling for lots of snow on Christmas, even though it really wasn't that cold Christmas Eve. There wasn't any moisture in the air either. As we drove home we said that maybe we wouldn't have a white Christmas after all. Little did we know . . .

December, Part 1

December was a fun, busy month. I had lots and lots of work to do with my Etsy shop and of course, for Christmas. We got two decent snowfalls in December, which is really freakish for here. Charlie really enjoyed them.

Then we had our Branch Christmas party. I love our church activities. It's so fun to see everyone together, and obviously, to eat. I made these red velvet brownies with a cream cheese swirl for the party. I combined a Southern Living recipe with a BHG one and man . . . best brownies ever! I guess they're technically reddies . . . either way, they were gone fast!

Since Charlie goes into Primary in January, he got to go up front and sing with the "big kids." He didn't know any of the words but I think he liked being in front of everyone. He's a ham. :)

My brother Ethan and his girlfriend went to a Christmas party where everyone was supposed to wear ugly Christmas sweaters (I wanted to do that for the branch party but John wasn't feeling it). Ethan took it one step further and made his own ugly Christmas sweater featuring the leg lamp from "A Christmas Story." And yes, the lamp lights up. As if you had to ask.