Merry Christmas.

Well. I can officially say that I made it through Christmas. I wasn't quite sure how I'd handle this holiday, but today actually wasn't that bad. It was a good day overall.

For the second time in four years, we had a white Christmas! I went my entire life not having one, and now I've had two in four years. So strange, but so cool. However, the weather gods definitely played me. I thought we'd just get a dusting of snow and that OKC/Stillwater would get the brunt, just like the weathermen said. But then, it started raining at midnight, and I knew we were probably gonna get hit pretty hard. By morning, it was sleeting; by 9am, snowing; and by 4pm, it had pretty much stopped. But during that time, we probably got a good 5-6 inches of snow, with drifts being much higher than that. We were under a blizzard warning for most of the day, too. So much for the 2-4 inches we were supposed to get...but snow is so pretty...

But now, my car is surrounded by a snow drift. I'll have to dig my way out or wait for the snow to melt. Lame.

Around 9am, when it first started...

And around 4pm, when the snow moved out.  Yikes.

Now normally, we open presents at midnight - but this year, we decided to not wake JJ and just get up whenever. Whenever wound up being 715am - way earlier than I was hoping for, but JJ tends to wake up that early when we're visiting my mom's. So I rolled out of bed, stuck on my Thunder Santa hat and made my way downstairs to open presents.

Tree at my parents' was loaded this year. Doesn't even include JJ's new ATV. Geez.

JJ is a little different from your typical kid - he isn't a big fan of opening presents. He's good for the first couple, then he just loses interest and moves on to something else. About 75 percent of the presents under the tree were his, so he only got through three before he didn't even care anymore. That meant my sister and I wound up opening most of his presents...ah well. Maybe one year [next year?] he'll actually open everything before he wanders off. As I helped open his presents, I also opened mine - and got some amazing stuff.

Christmas loot.

-- Buffalo Wild Wings gift card [nom nom]
-- Ghiradelli chocolates [again, nom nom]
-- two different K-Cup holders [woot! now the boxes won't take up space in my cabinets!]
-- two sets of OSU pajama pants [which I absolutely wanted and needed]
-- Sephora gift card [got this, along with one of the sets of pajama pants, from my sister's boyfriend]
-- An electric screwdriver set [definitely needed this]
-- Burt's Bees chapstick and cuticle oil [again, definitely needed this]
-- The Corpse Bride on Blu-ray [after The Nightmare Before Christmas, my fave Tim Burton movie]
-- a 5-year journal where I can write a blurb about my day every day for five years [my sister got me this, and I totally love it]
-- wooden cutting boards [again, from my sister]
-- a bottle of wine...my sister found this really awesome place called Urban WineWorks and got me the most amazing bottle of sweet red there; however, I already drank it back at the beginning of the month when I was having a rough night and was spending the night at her place...ha...

Two other things I got are my most favorite gifts of all. The first will be installed sometime this week [depending on when we can dig ourselves out] - my parents got me a remote start for my car. SUHWEET. I'm so freakin' thrilled. It's supposed to be installed tomorrow, but I doubt I'll get my car out, so I'll try to get it done Thursday or Friday.

The other gift is my absolute favorite. JJ [through my parents] got me birthstone necklaces for December [him] and August [Devon]. The only time I cried today was when I opened those necklaces and saw that I had one for Devon, too. They're my most favorite gift of all.

I love these. So much.

The rest of the day was spent talking to my dad [who got to FaceTime in from Afghanistan and watch us open presents], watching the snow fall and setting up all of JJ's toys. Pretty sure we used at least a dozen batteries in all the toys that he got. I think his favorite toy was the Play-Doh ice cream maker set I got him; he would play with that thing for hours if we let him. He also really loves the two Thomas the Train sets that he got [one a Take-and-Play; the other a motorized train set that we plan to build on]. It was so fun to watch him play with his toys and enjoy the day with him; this is the first year he really started to get Christmas, which made it even more fun.

Yay Thomas!

My mom made the most delicious Christmas lunch, which we ate while watching lots of basketball [don't eeeeeeeeven get me started on the atrocious officiating - and play - i watched during the thunder/heat game]. Besides a quick adventure outside to retrieve the cover that had blown off my dad's truck [and almost busting my ass in a snow drift], the rest of the day was quiet. It was nice to be home as a family [well, besides my husband and dad being gone] and just hanging out. It was even more fun to watch JJ enjoy the holiday.

I thought today would be really hard - and trust me, it was. But it wasn't as hard as I thought. I'm not sure if it's because I'm four months removed and have started to accept that I just won't have my son here for all of these special moments [won't have him here physically, at least]. Or maybe it's because I imagined him having his own Christmas celebration in heaven. Or maybe it's because I was surrounded by an amazing mom, sister and little big man that helped keep my mind off things. Whatever it was, today wasn't as hard to handle as I thought, and I'm grateful for that. I just felt at peace, even though my heart ached all day. I'm just grateful I made it through in one piece.

As the day winds down and we move on to the rest of the year, I'm grateful. I'm grateful for all that I received and was able to give, grateful that I felt at peace, grateful that I was surrounded by family, grateful that I saw my first legit snow in more than a year. I'm just...grateful. For everything.

Merry Christmas everyone. I hope your holiday was amazing.

Kolu would say Merry Christmas, but he's kinda busy terrorizing that ball. Isn't his bow cute though?! :)