more Christmas cheer

added a few more shiny red ornaments to our wreath
after many years of begging and pleading we finally bought the kids an inflatable yard decoration. This little Rudolph is about the cheapest option out there, but when we got it home and out of the box found out it is supposed to be "indoor" only, I guess he will be ok on our front porch. He kind of freaks out our cat though.

and we went to the mall and waited in line with the masses for our Santa picture today

Snow, again! and decorating for Christmas

This is the 2nd year in a row we've had snow in the Houston area in early December. See this post from last year.

The kids in my class were so excited this morning. The first 3 pictures are from outside my classroom.

our garden outside my classroom

The kids school released the kids a little early today, so we came home and the rain had washed away a lot of the snow, but then it snowed some more and they got to go outside and play for about an hour or so until their hands got too cold - we really need to get some waterproof gloves to prepare for another possible snow next year!

snow on the roof and some of the plants

the picture to put on the blog for family in NZ to see, say cheese!

with the neighbor friends

I stayed warm the rest of the afternoon and watched the snow from inside! It's supposed to get in the 20s here tonight - so the pets are in - Ally the cat in the house and Molly the dog in the garage.




And some more 'Christmas' pictures to share - some of the decorations in the house.

I took these pictures the other night while Chris and the kids were out, and so the house was clean and quiet, but the night lighting was not the best for taking pictures.

I love these glittery green snowflakes from Target.

a couple of my favorite ornaments, the Starbucks cup, and a 'baby's first Christmas' one that I got when Thomas was a baby

a couple of pictures from past Christmas', and one of my owl ornaments

So, it looks like we're ready for Christmas, but I have barely done any shopping, this weekend at least I need to get a few things for the family in New Zealand and get that in the mail on Monday!

Counting down 2 more weeks of school for me and the kids.

chasing seagulls

I don't know if I've uploaded a video to the blog before, just trying this out....

picnic on the beach with Nana

Yesterday's walk

Stylin' winter fashion

the best thing about it being winter here in NZ, all the new clothes....

Snow!

pictures are in reverse order from this morning to last night. The kids had a lot of fun, it is probably the most snow they will ever see here.
We even had a little bit of a "snow day" - their school had a late start at 10am (so I got to go into work late too)