Elf, Part 1: First, we'll make snow angels (and go sledding) for two hours.

Once upon a time, when I was a "rich" single gal, I used to spend ridiculous sums of money buying every single one of my family members a Christmas present. Then I got married and became far less rich, so I transitioned into buying for just my parents and the sibling whose name I drew, and then giving a little gift to my whole family. Last year, it was a very important year's supply of our favorite condiment. This year, I went along with my mom's idea of memories and gifted my family an Elf Day.

We are mildly obsessed with the movie Elf this time of year, so Matt and I replaced my family's scratched version of the movie with a new DVD that had our Elf Day itinerary inside. The itinerary was, of course, taken from the day that Buddy outlined for his dad in the movie. We switched "Dad" out with "Family" and followed the list to a T! Elf Day became one of our new favorite Christmas traditions on the spot.

First, we made snow angels (and went sledding) for two hours.

We, admittedly, spent more time sledding than making the actual snow angels :-) The weather was perfectly sunny that day and we had more than a foot of fresh powder to play with at the sledding hill just five minutes from my parents' house. It was a blast!

That fresh powder was greatly appreciated since we all had our fair share of wipeouts!

The worst crash of the day came when Matt and I hurtled toward Josh and Gabe. We saw it coming and tried to avoid them, but couldn't quite slow down enough to steer away.

We were so worried that the babies would be sad and it would spoil the morning, but they had the opposite reaction -- they thought it was hilarious that they had made us crash! Gabey Baby even whipped out some playful pointing and laughing. "We got you!"

So the sledding party continued without a hitch.

Of course, Matt and I couldn't leave without a friendly little race. It was working out swell from me for the first 90% of the hill...

... but then I hit a bump and Matt celebrated as my body was flung off the sled while he sped to the finish line. Once again, thank goodness for fresh powder!

That new snow also came in handy for a snowball fight to end the outing. Part one was a total success!

Then, we went ice skating. And that's coming up next!