Merry Christmas!

We woke up to a white Christmas... well, that was no surprise, considering there is darn near 1 foot of snow on the ground and temperatures have not gotten above freezing for the past 2 weeks. We have been enjoying all the snow. It is a novelty for the Georgia gal but mister for Alaska it is a refreshing return to normalcy.

A Christmas memory for me is trying really hard to go to sleep Christmas eve night and then waking up really early Christmas morning to view the loads of presents under the branches that Santa had brought. The most difficult part was lying in bed watching the clock at 5 am and debating if it was a reasonable hour to wake up anyone else. One year my brother and I agreed to wake each other up, no matter what time it was, just so we could turn the lights on and look at the tree before Mom and Dad got up. No matter how quiet we were, some how they seemed to know we were stirring and would be up not long after we were up and about.

Well, Christmas morning is not all that much different in the Schuchman household. We have two kids... furkids as we call them... except they don't really concern themselves with being quiet or not waking us up in the morning. And they don't save it for Christmas day, it is every morning they are anxious to get up and get moving. We slept in till about 6:30 and then the pacing began. So we got up and got some breakfast for the furkids and then marveled at our little Christmas tree and all the brightly wrapper packages underneath. After Max and Phoenix went through their morning routine of eating, going out and coming back in, they realised the tree looked different and Max in particular new what was going on. He remembered Christmas last year, both puppies got treats in their stockings and packages to un wrap. Max will actually help open a gift, if you ask him too. He was ready to dish out present for us, that morning! And some how he knew which present was for him. He carefully pulled down the one with his name on it and looked at us for the okay to take off the paper. He thoroughly enjoyed his new chew toy, it was his focus all morning.

Phoenix had some cookies she could enjoy while Max happily chewing away on his new toy. Part of Santa's delivery got held up due to the snowy/windy/icy conditions and her package was in the second box. She is a pretty easy going dog, though, edible things are just as exciting to her (or maybe even more so) than a new chewy toy.

Russ and I continued to enjoy opening presents and chattering about the things we'd received and then goatherd our selves up to head to Lucky and Jade's for Christmas dinner. They are to the north of us and had received even more snow so we took our snow shoes and sled just in case...

It was a good thing! There was a little path worn in the snow from the back door to the car, and that was it. The path was about 2. 5 feet deep. Russ and I put on our shoes to go anywhere other than the path and we needed them. The stuff was powdery and deep! It was fun trekking around in it. Jade and I even built a substantial snow man and went for a little bit of sledding down a small hill. The toughest part was getting back up the hill in the deep snow! Lucky and Russ built a snow pile of their own and we even had a small snow ball skirmish.

It was a very enjoyable Christmas Day!