The Annual Florida Christmas Snow Man

There are tons of traditions at Christmas time. One that started somehow is that we go to the beach on Christmas to build a snowman out of sand. Some years we've been really into it and other years we're not. It's random people who go it seems, but everyone we know is always invited. It's difficult to build a vertical snow man out of crumbling powdery sand, so we've started letting the snow man be lazy like we are and we let him rest on his back.

Here are my brothers and dad just starting out
They decided they needed some sun, so off went their shirts
Dylan was busy burying his cute feet
Then he took off his shirt and went to work w/ the rest of the boys - so strong! Dylan didn't go last year, maybe it was too breezy or he stayed home for a nap or something. So this was his first year of really helping.

He helped pack the sand
This looks like snow to me, except there's a shirtless baby in the hole.
It's a challenge to get the whole snow man in the picture. Dylan was saying "uh oh" like they were going to fall
You can see their double decker shadow
Guess which silhouette is mine. One give away is that I'm one of the two holding a camera.

Handstand contests. I tried, but it's not fun kicking down from the hand stand b/c my leg muscles or whatever are already stretched enough.
Dylan is actually laughing here, although it looks like he's being tortured. Dylan tested the cool water
Matt actually went in. Look how calm and flat the water is. No surfing this year.
A Relaxing Christmas evening

Dylan really wanted to play w/ the big boys so bad. They let him play a little but Dylan started acting really tired when they didn't pass it to him. Then I realized that he hadn't had a nap ALL DAY LONG! It was sunset, and our Christmas had been so fun and he hadn't acted tired or cranky all day. I'm not good at keeping schedules.
Dylan pulled his blanket over his own head and fell right asleep on the way home.

2003 - me and Steven, my 4 Gille siblings and Mark

We did a Hawaiian snow girl w/ oranges as buttons.Matt flipped JT and Martin over then into the soft snowman as a landing padMartin is wearing the same shorts that JT is wearing in 2007.

(I don't know where 2004 pictures are)

2005 - just me and 2 of my brothers

The water's cold to me, but it's colder than that in other places around the world I guess. I've gone surfing on Christmas, but not since being pregnant and being a mom. Here's someone surfing on the left of the picture. I thought it was Matt, but he was on a mission.

back bend over the belly of the snowman. You can see my "Dylan tummy" poking out
snow angel2006 with ~12 of us in our extended family

my brothers doing hand stands

The sky is always amazing. I really should go to the beach a lot more often.

My Mom's

I think that part of the reason I woke up so early and made beakfast our first Christmas so that I could still go to my mom's house like I had for the twenty-something years before. Each year it gets easier to accept that I have my own family now, and I'm not as eager to rush to my mom's. I enjoy my own little family. Of course I still want to go, but I'm not in as much of a rush. I was sad that I missed Stephen and Lindsey though. They had already left for thier mom's house. Dylan wore his cute sweater and hat, but only for one picture. It was seriously a hot Christmas- upper 70's.

Don has an old train that he hadn't gotten out of storage since he was a kid. It's an antique and works really well. It even does some cool tricks.
We opened even more presents and played with the toys.JT looks like he's ready for a nap, but my mom is happy w/ her picture desk calendar from Dylan.
Dylan also got a lot of Diego things. He's so lucky! Thanks Santa, Mom, and Malia!

We got to talk to my brother, Martin on the phone. That's a special treat b/c he's in Mexico on a mission for our church. He gets to talk to his mom only on Christmas and Mother's Day. We conference called in some other family too. My mom gets so nervous that we won't be able to make the connection and we'll miss getting to talk to him. She's laughing finally here though:)
Uncle Matt the jungle gym
We had a cook out for dinner before we headed for the beach.

Breakfast

I remember being SOOOOOOOOOoooo excited for my first Christmas after Steven and I were married. It was our first Christmas together and I wanted it to be perfect. I wanted to make breakfast. Well, as mentioned before - I'm not much of a cook. I got up so early to make breakfast but I burned the first batch of pancakes. I actually had time to air out the house, disable the smoke alarm, and make a fresh batch before Steven got up.

Anyway, I'm not into making breakfast on Christmas morning any more. Thankfully, one of Malia's grandmas is in town and made breakfast for us. She and Corrie made pancakes, eggs, turkey baccon, and cheese grits. We stayed in our PJs. Steven added the Santa look. We even got to open some more presents!

Dylan couldn't wait to get this Buzz Lightyear out of its packaging. Look how distressed he is. Thank you Uncle Luiz!! It was a big hit. He even knows how to load it and turn on the lazer beam.
Andre and Rita came over too.

Andre got Dylan a tricycle. Hoe did he know that's what Dylan has been wanting? He has been coveting Malia's pink one ever since her birthday.
And THIS was the last shove that sent Dylan toppling over and crying like a baby.
Where was the focus here, Rosco the dog's rear? Oh well. Andre built this table and chairs last Christmas for Dylan and Malia. Malia has hogged it at her house the entire year. Dylan enjoys it a lot though b/c he's over there every-other day.
Green and Red baby bellies