More snow pictures

 

Frosty...

And the boys!

Frisky tries to understand the cold, white stuff falling from the sky!

There were several snow-ball fights, but I think Sam was cheating on this one!

Isn't it beautiful?

SNOW!!!

Okay, maybe more like snow. But hey, it's here! The glorious white stuff is really falling! The weather men promised it, the paper promised it, but we 'knew better'. It was supposed to hit at midnight and we would have several inches by morning, anywhere from 1-5 inches depending on whom you asked and when you asked it, but this morning not a flurry was to be seen. During breakfast, though, the flakes started falling and now it's actually snowing!

And yes, this does mean that the south will officially shut down!

2008

What have we been doing this week? I'm almost ashamed to tell you. Christmas comes but once a year, as does New Years and we've been enjoying the holidays to the max this week. We've been staying up until eleven o'clock watching football games and eating junk foods, then we sleep in until ten in the morning. The only thing productive we've done all week, and we just finished yesterday, is to take down all the Christmas decorations. It's a big job, and Mama did the entire inside of the house, while I (Abby) helped Daddy take down the lights and garland outside. It's a sad time of year. 

The temperature didn't get much above freezing yesterday and the poinsettia didn't make it.

Well! Enough depression. If you've never read the story Christmas Every Day then I recommend it to get you over the after-Christmas blues. We had a wonderful New Years and stayed up until one-thirty in the morning setting off fire-works with our next-door-neighbors. We ate chips and dips and chicken wings and pigs-in-blankets and watched the ball drop in New York.

It's been a wonderful 2008 so far and we wish you all a very happy New Year!

Christmas at Grandmothers

Every year, on the Saturday after Christmas, we celebrate a second Christmas at Grandmother's house.

The feast!

Little cousin Evie opens a new baby doll cradle...

While her cousin Robbie investigates Jesse's new mp3 player.

Chris uses his new coloring kit and easel.

Nathan opens more presents.

Arrr Matey!

Nathan got a little excited with the eye-patches!

The cutest little pirate you ever saw!

 

The boys!

 

And the girl cousins: Abby, Robbie, Sarah, Mary and Evie

  

A sleepy girl.

 

We hope you all had a Merry Christmas!

 

Christmas

On Christmas Eve, we had the Daileys, friends from church, over for dinner.

Just finishing dessert.

Christopher cruelly drowned several gingerbread men!

A moment of peace before the kids are let out!

According to family tradition, every Christmas morning 'Santa' hides 'the pickle' (a pickle-shaped, blown-glass ornament) somewhere in the tree. The first child to find it is the first to open his gifts. Then that child hides it again after he is done opening his gifts and the second child to find it is the second one to open. It's a pretty wild scramble!

 Jack has an armful of gifts!

Nathan unwraps a Chicago Bears Brian Urlacher jersey.

A new Lego set. (One of many unwrapped that morning)

An Xbox 360 (video game console) for all of us.

Jesse got a Zune! (mp3 and video player) It was a high-tech Christmas!

Nathan wrapped this gorgeous present all by himself! Inside: my (Abby) new cell phone!

Daddy bought Mama a diamond necklace.

That evening, we went to the Heinss' house for another Christmas party. Mama and I sing hymns with Kelly and Sarah Heinss.

Christmas is coming!!!

We're still counting down the days until Christmas! Monday night, the Chicago  Bears were playing on (give a wild stab) Monday Night Football! Daddy projected it onto the living room wall and we got to try watching the game that way! Everyone enjoyed it except Tex, who couldn't figure out what those blaring speakers were doing on his sofa.

Despite the hopeful smiles, the Bears lost again. Well:

THERE'S ALWAYS NEXT YEAR!!!

Despite the confusion of light and motion, I think this is a very good picture. Thanks Daddy!

 Riding the carousel at the mall! (Jack and Sam)

 

 Nathan and Jesse (Oh, and Jesse, lashing the reindeer with the seat belt strap won't make it go faster!)

This is our new dog house! Minnie-May, our older, short-haired dog, has always struggled with the cold, so this year Daddy and the boys built her a hut with a heat lamp and Mama collected old quilts, rugs and sleeping bags to add to her bed! She loves it, but Frisky, with her thick coat, finds the heat too oppressive and sleeps outside the shelter with her head on the bed. As you can see, she has dragged one of the rugs out to sleep on!

It glows warmly every night!

MERRY CHRISTMAS AND HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!

Cold Front

At last! It feels like December! Ignoring the laughter of our Northern friends, I'll tell the rest of you that it's a chilly 38 degrees this morning! Well, that's certainly better than the balmy 70s and 80s we've been having. Daddy started the first fire this morning and it looks a lot more like Christmas. Friday night, we went to the walk-through-nativity at near-by Briarwood church. We started this tradition several years ago and they keep making it better. The crowds were amazing, since this was the third night they had had this performance. They kept the people moving quickly, though, and one man told us they were bringing groups of 15-20 people through every couple minutes. They had scenes set up all around the parking lot of the church with people acting out the Christmas story, from the prophets to the resurrection. It was beautiful and we enjoyed it even more this year, since the waiting time had been cut down with the more stream-lined operation. We left the camera in the van, though, so there are no pictures from that event.

Tex was here!

Advent treats! Chocolate-dipped pretzel sticks and shortbread cookies!

 

The boys are waiting to dig in!

MERRY CHRISTMAS TO ALL AND TO ALL A GOOD WEEK!!!!