Snow Day Round 2

What a treat to have Eric home to have a family snow day. To the boys it meant heading outside for plowing and playing in the snow. To me it meant gazing out at the snow from the warm indoors! Our friends' three middle grade aged girls came down to play with the boys! Such a treat for them! And with 6+" everyone was set.

Snow Day 2013

After what seemed like an hour to get all our clothes ready and on, the boys and I went outside for our first accumulated snow this season. It is a feat to get out the door with so many layers and not feel like you are going to over heat before you get out there. I was laughing hard at watching my boys turn into marshmallows. But I hoped once we got out there, it would be worth the time put in.

Sure enough, both boys loved it. I hardly had a chance to clear off the walk way and stairs before Timothy was requesting the shovel - we should get another, cause that boy's got some strength and was clearing our driveway (more in swirls than straight lines, you got to take the help you get!). And I was surprised to see how much Cayden enjoyed it. He was running through our yard, our neighbors yard, and even into the streets...it's hard for him to tell the difference once it's all covered with snow. I taught Tim how to make a snow angel. And we even got to see the snow plow clear our road, which meant the truck driving down our road a good four times. Such a treat for the boys.

I cleared a "driving path" for the boys to push around Little Tike cars and a shopping cart, but that soon turned to frustration for Cayden since his cart kept falling over, and I'm not sure how much of it was related to us having been outside for an hour at this point. There were many tears and I walked to the front door to open the back (so we could de-layer in the mudroom), only to get to the back 30sec later to see Tim pushing Cayden's face into the snow...needless to say, the fun snow day was over. I will try it again, but boy...boys!

Christmas Blessings

We have been blessed to have a wonderfully full holiday season! Here's a little bit of where we've been since pre-Thanksgiving:

*Cutting down our first tree with friends
*Hosting the Bucks (parents, sister, grandparents) and the Huffords (parents) for Thanksgiving amidst the stomach bug running through our families
*First day of December decorating the tree
*Celebrating the first Sunday of Advent with candles
*Riding the Holiday Train (schedule Holiday CTA Train)
*Quickly grabbing bratwurst, potato pancakes, and apple strudel at the Christkindl Market (since it felt like 10* outside!)
*Polar Express watching and then a reading over at Barnes and Noble by a "real" conductor
*Drive Thru holiday lights over in Valpo! Perfect for being in the car!
*Annual holiday dinner and tree decorating at the Huffords with family friends
*Hosting first (but hopefully annual) Christmas cookie decorating party with new friends

So many of these are spontaneous decisions which is not always my typical, but I'm thinking spontaneity is great!!