Christmas things and funny stuff

I just walked in the house from shoveling snow for the first time in my life!! No, Rick is not a slacker husband, he is out of town, which gave me this wonderful experience. Picture this...I have a huge black down coat zipped up with the hood so tightly drawstringed you can't really see my face (it was a good thing, I looked crazy), gray sweatpants, Rick's snow boots (I don't have any yet. I haven't wrapped my mind around being cute and warm, so I haven't bought any boots yet.), and my almost 6 month prego belly shoveling our driveway in 30 mile an hour winds and snow. Funny, really funny!!
I started and it wasn't as bad as I thought it was going to be. I had done about half of the driveway when a sweet neighbor saw me and had pity on me. For one thing, I didn't know if there is a right way to shovel snow. It turns out there is. I was going top to bottom and my angel neighbor told me to go side to side so you don't have to pick up the shovel as much. I learned something new today and I am pretty proud of myself.
Last night, it was snowing like crazy outside, we had a fire going, the kids were making their yearly gingerbread houses (this year they opted for the village), drinking yummy homemade hot chocolate and then watched 'How the Grinch Stole Christmas'. It was such a great night. I am looking forward to the kids and I having our first white Christmas.

Two nights ago we went to visit Santa. Isn't this such a sweet picture of Ben with Santa. This is the official picture that was taken. What you can't see in this picture is the bigger picture.

This is the bigger picture...

Rick and I have laughed about this picture for the last 2 days. I asked her to take a picture with the elf but really wanted to get a picture of her with Santa in the background. She wasn't happy!

What's a guy got to do to win a girl over? Apparently yearly presents and candy canes isn't enough.