Merry Christmas dear blog readers! Have you had a good day? Filled with family friends and, if you're in Iowa, SNOW.

Christmas has been going well here in the Clear Lake Schnoebelen household too. We got up at 7am (Which is the earliest we're allowed to wake up. Stephen initially had his alarm clock set for 3am but mom caught him.) We sorted and open presents this year. I got a lot of useful things and I wanted and lots of fun things... Like glass canisters for flour and sugar, salt and pepper shakers, a little light-up Christmas tree decoration, a miniature dulcimer pin, a garlic press, an 8" frying pan, the 5th season of the TV show House and those glow in the dark planets and stars, amid other things. :-) Thank-you one! Thank-you all!

Here are some pictures. Mostly of Watson enjoying the crinkly paper... Oh. Did I mention it? Dad said that I could bring Watson home to stay for the holiday so I wouldn't have to board him. Isn't that CRAZY? But I'm grateful, so thanks Dad!



















Here you see Watson looking slightly confused at the surrounding gifts...



















But he loves crinkly paper. Here you see Mary exploiting this love.


















This Watson diving among the crinkly carnage.

















After presents I made Christmas pancakes! And they weren't Christmassy just because I was wearing a Santa hat and had a pancake with a Christmas tree. I substituted eggnog for milk and added cinnamon and nutmeg. They were good!


















Here is a close-up of the tree-pancake. :-)


















And here is Stephen eating it. Mom and Dad were surprised that he ate it. Mom said Stephen refuses to eat pancakes unless they contain chocolate chips.
















Mary says: Look! I am so awesome, I have gathered the sparkliness of Edward Cullen and trapped it in this ball! (Matthew got one of those rubber bouncy balls with glitter in it...)


















I gave everyone homemade cranberry eggnog muffins and Mom accidentally left hers out... This picture was taken AFTER we pulled it from under the couch. Sneaky, sneaky Watson had been having a snack.




After Matthew and Daniel finished shoveling the heavy, very slushy snow, we built a Calvin and Hobbs-inspired snowman...
























Matthew went in after we started on the middle section because he was cold. But Daniel and I carried on!


















Here is the snow-cannon we built to go with the snowman.


















Here's Daniel with our creation...

























And here's me! :-D

























Here's the view from the back.

All in all, we were pretty proud of ourselves. Unfortunately, these pictures don't show (other than on our coats, etc.) How HARD it was snowing! It was really coming down! From the windows it looked really Christmassy and pretty. But outside the snow was wet and not the best to work with.... It was 35 degrees out, after all.

Stephen got a bunch of Tom and Jerry cartoons, so we've been watching that all day, and they just finished. Now Philomena, Mom, Daniel, and Mary are watching VeggieTales: The Story of St. Nicholas.

Dinner was delicious! We had ham and mashed potatoes and snicker salad and sweet potatoes. Mmm-mmm! So good!

After dinner we played the game Snorta, which was fun. In the game everyone playing draws a little animal figurine, a small barn and gets a stack of cards. Each person chooses an appropriate noise for their animal which everyone must memorize. Once everyone chooses a sound the animals must be hidden in the barns. Then you go around the table, each person taking a turn flipping over a card. If your card matches someone else's, you must make the sound of that person's animal before they do. If you win, the looser takes the cards. The goal of the game is to get rid of your stack first. We only played one round, and Matthew won.

So yeah. :-) That has been our Christmas. :-) I hope everyone else has had a good day! Tomorrow I will probably go see the new Sherlock Holmes movie with some of my family. :-) I can't wait!

Now, I'm off to end my day by wrapping up in a blanket, turning off the lights, and watching the Doctor Who Christmas special. *siiiiiigh*