Christmas Morning

I was SO incredibly excited for Christmas this year. It's the first year that Adelae could actually understand what's going on. We went WAY overboard on her presents! I'm told that's to be expected ;) We wrote a note to Santa, put out cookies and milk and waited until she was sleeping on Christmas Eve to put out presents and fill stockings. I was really expecting her to come down Christmas morning and be amazed at all the presents. So, as soon as she woke up, Ben and I grabbed her up and RAN down the stairs. We were both saying "Look Adelae! Look! Santa came!" Her response? "Huh? What? Tired..." She wasn't quite as excited as we were!

Opening presents was a different story...sort of. She was really into the first couple. Then she decided she was all done opening. I think since she got her books first, she thought all the presents were books! So, we had to stop and read a few, which was fine because Mommy forgot to charge the camera battery! Once she started opening the toys, she got a little more excited. Again, we had to open each toy, then play with it for awhile before we could move onto the next one. All in all it was a wonderful Christmas morning and we really enjoyed ourselves.

Inspecting her golf clubs


Playing with her new "tart"


The BIG present...her kitchen


As always, I took a ton of pictures. You can see all of them at http://ftwaynecollinses.shutterfly.com/ Ben also took quite a few videos. I'm having a bit of trouble getting them to upload, so I'll post them in a separate blog.

The Great Ice Storm of 08

On Friday, December 19 we had a HUGE ice storm. It rained all night long and then immediately turned to ice. There was about a 2 inch coating of ice on everything. I was in bed and kept hearing these huge BOOMing noises. I was a little scared! I thought the roof was going to fall in! We lost power about 7:00 Friday morning and didn't get it back until 1:30 on Tuesday. It was a very long 5 days. Luckily, none of our pipes froze (thanks to my dad's diligence in taking care of my house) and we are back home again. Here are a few pictures of our yard the day of the big storm.

Directly out the back door.


The swing tree.


In the back yard looking West


The kitchen roof


Tree by the driveway.


Little tree right outside the back door coated in ice.


Back door and East side of the house. It was a solid sheet of ice!


We lost a few more limbs that what is in the pictures. All in all, we were pretty lucky. There doesn't appear to be any major damage. I'm just glad it's over!

Visit With Santa

I must be a glutton for punishment. Everyone told me, "Don't take Adelae to see Santa. It's a wasted trip this year." Of course, I didn't listen. Ben had the day off yesterday so we dressed Adelae up in her Christmas dress and headed off to the mall to see Santa. She was great in line, and my hopes lifted. They have a great set up from the movie "Rudolph." She LOVED the snow man and the abominable.

When we were in line we kept asking her about Santa. Her response was always "No, no Santa. Noman (Snowman)." I kept hoping and hoping that she would sit there with him long enough for ONE good picture. We even let her look at all the other kids sitting on Santa's lap, hoping that she would realize there was nothing to be afraid of. Santa was great with her and really tried to put her at ease. But, it didn't quite work. She was fine, as long as Santa kept his distance.

This is what happened when I tried to sit Adelae on Santa's lap.

So, as you can see, we didn't get Adelea's picture with Santa this year! Oh well, there's always next time.