Christmas Memories

All was fine on Christmas, from the first moments the kids ran down the stairs until they went to bed after a full day of playing, visiting Grandpa, and eating way too much sugar. Here are Nate and Sean in front of the Christmas tree right before they ripped into the presents. Look out the window and you'll see we had a white Christmas for once!

Grandpa still had a lot of snow on the ground when we visited in the afternoon. Nate really enjoyed the humongous icicles hanging from the eaves of Grandpa's house. Better enjoy them now -- later that evening it got warmer and started to rain. Now the snow is just a distant memory.


Nate played checkers with his uncle. "Somehow" Nate won every game even though he's only played checkers one other time in his entire life. He must be a genius at it or maybe something else was going on?

Santa was very kind to the kids this year and brought them a Wii. Sean is a pretty good player, especially with this sword fighting game. All he has to do is swing back-and-forth and his enemies fall down all over the screen.

Playing in the Snow

Today was the day for big fun. We walked down to the local Middle School where there is a small sledding hill. It was just about the right size for Nate and Sean to enjoy, one at a time or both together on the same toboggan.

Everyone was out in the snow enjoying themselves. The sky turned a bright sunny blue and the temperature made it up to just above freezing. That was a welcome sight after the heavy snow, high wind and brutal temperatures of the day before.

Even Dad got in on the sledding action. The extra weight actually made the toboggans travel faster and farther so he was a popular companion.


This was a pretty typical scene in the neighborhood this morning. The snow came up to about 16 inches and the wind pushed drifts high onto cars, bushes, patio furniture or any other obstacle that happened to get in the way.

Sean spotted some fresh, non-trampled snow in our backyard and went for it. He is standing next to a wrought-iron chair. The snow is higher than the seat, and goes up almost to Sean's waist!

Blizzard!

A huge snowstorm began last night. By morning we had eight inches on the ground, and by evening we had fifteen inches and snow was still falling. Even though the weather was cold, the wind was howling and the snow blanketed everything, the boys wanted to get outside and enjoy the event. We never made it out of the front yard but that was fine. We'll venture around the neighborhood tomorrow when we no longer have to deal with blizzard conditions.

The snow was so deep that it's hard for anyone to walk around, much less someone as small as Sean. The snow plows didn't come for three days the last time we had a big snow like this so Sean is going to need that sled for awhile!