Best. Christmas. EVER.

Happy Christmas weekend from the Famous Amys household. I hope that everyone enjoyed their holiday as much as we did in snowy Asheville. Yes, SNOWY. It was the first White Christmas on record for our area since 1981. And while we usually revel in our year-round mild temperatures, it was quite the treat to have a winter wonderland surround us for the holidays. And even though the weather forecasters had been predicting snowfall for days leading up to Christmas morning, we were a bit skeptical while we were playing in the balmy sunshine the day before. Here’s the picture of Taylor and Chris I snapped right before Mass on Christmas Eve – note the lack of coats:

And after waking up to beautiful, big snowflakes on Saturday and having it steadily drop throughout the day, here’s what we had 24 hours after I took the previous picture:

So, snowy wonderfulness on Christmas is always a bonus, but what was more fun then any accumulation was watching the pure joy and excitement radiating through my toddler’s body while opening the presents she had patiently been staring at for the past weeks. And because Chris’s parents had come into town earlier in the week to celebrate the Amys Christmas, she already had scored a sweet dollhouse and had mastered the ability to rip decorative paper off of packages in record time.

And because the Young family always unwraps the majority of our presents on Christmas day, and the Amys clan opens all their presents on Christmas Eve, Chris and I had to meld our traditions a few years ago to encompass our present-opening heritage. And so at our house we open all extended family and friend gifts on Christmas Eve, and then we get our Santa presents and just-us gifts on Christmas Day. So on Friday night we watched Taylor enjoy all the booty that my parents, her aunt and uncle and my Granddaddy generously gifted to her. Which included some beloved princess shoes from YaYa and Papa, some crafty items from Beeba and Dirky and some blocks and a bus from Uncle Ryan.

And just a quick byline here – At the beginning of the month I got a frantic email from my 90 year old grandfather who was standing in the Homewood toy shop looking for a present for Miss Taylor. And when I responded, Anything to do with a Disney Princess, he took that message to the ladies working at the store and this is what was selected and shipped to my lucky daughter:

A Cinderella Barbie and matching pony. You can only imagine how excited Taylor was when opening the gift, and just moments after ripping it out of the package she looked at us with all joy and enthusiasm on her face and said, Opening presents is lots of fun!

And after falling asleep that night with Cinderella wrapped tightly in her arms, we awoke the next morning to find that Santa had made a significant stop at the Amys house overnight, bringing Taylor oodles and oodles of Princess loot for her stocking and the one gift she had been asking for since we starting questioning what she wanted Santa to bring her for Christmas, a Rupunzel Barbie doll.

We then ate breakfast, made a big fire in the fireplace and started opening the final presents under the tree. Chris and I were pretty excited to give Taylor her big gift from us – a Princess trunk full of dress-up clothes. I’m sure I have mentioned how much T loved her Cinderella costume, and how after months of nonstop wear she finally shredded the skirt and popped all the seams. So we knew she would be super jazzed about a whole trunk of shiny, sparkly princess gear.

And the cherry on top was her very own full-length mirror to put in her room. What can I say, my daughter’s a diva.

So after playing with our new toys, taking a nap to recharge and then building a giant snowman in the front yard, we packed up the Envoy and braved the roads to get to the Bound family’s annual Christmas night throwdown. Because the majority of our good friends here are all Asheville transplants, LeAnn and Jamie open their house for a big celebration the night of Christmas. And they definitely got the party-with-your-kiddos thing down, putting up a projector screen in their media room so the kids could watch holiday flicks while the parents were able to converse downstairs.

I even brought a bottle of Fre alcohol-removed Brut for the occasion – That’s right, even a preggo lady like myself knows how to get down. And baby-in-my-belly was having fun too.

And while driving home last night, Chris and I just kept remarking about how wonderful this Christmas was. Best one on record. The snow, all of our gifts, being with our best friends – We are a very blessed family. But the most awesome part of the whole weekend was being able to see the absolute joy in my daughter’s eyes throughout the last few days. To be a kid again on Christmas is pretty fun, but to WATCH your kids on Christmas is by far the best thing ever. And we can’t wait to do this all again next year, with one more little precious bundle