Our Winter Holiday Fun Began Differently than Anticipated

Nothing is as planned yet on our winter holiday in Switzerland but it's still awesome! Flight delays = missed the last day of Santa's village in France. New Years Day = EVERYTHING IS CLOSED, including grocery, gas station, I mean everything all day long.

We spent the entire day with the kids playing in the parking lot of the little hotel and the small hill across the street in a construction zone with left over, refrozen icy snow.

Best sledding spot? The gravel pile.

Best place to find ice to build a fort? The gutter on the street.

What souvenir did they keep from a neighborhood walk? More ice chunks and trash for forts and snowmen.

It's 0 C/ 32 F or below and they don't care one bit. The big kids played outside for about 8 hours and are in heaven sledding on a card board box and finding rocks and sticks to decorate the snowmen. Ashlyn seems to be getting sick so she napped for 3 hours inside with a runny nose and cough.

There are six smiling faces heading to bed now.

Happy New Year!!

It's a Christmas Miracle!!

The ExxonMobil complex is CLOSED today! It never closes! This day is going to rock! Dad is home and only going to work a little instead of all day. Two playdates arranged for the kids in the igloo and sledding hill. Beautiful sunshine streaming through the kitchen window so I can try my hand at really cool pictures of gingerbread houses in the natural sunlight with the vibrant colored candy. Today will be a good day.

Snow Update

This evening:

• All three kids exhausted themselves playing in the snow. Ben played for hours and hours while Brian shoveled for hours and hours. Brian says Ben shoveled for almost two hours as well when they went together to dig out an elderly couple who have a doctor appointment tomorrow.
• Ben and Brian finished digging an igloo together. Ben was totally excited to show me all their hard work when I brought Jacob and Maddie out after nap time. The neighbor also made a snowman that made for a good photo op.
• We ate a delicious roast tonight for dinner and Ben asked for three helpings of carrots. Got the secret recipe from the Teaffs in Texas (Lindsey, tell your mom thanks, just butter and brown sugar but he LOVES them). Maddie did NOT ask for seconds. She whined through the entire meal. It was hard to hear her though over Jacob's banshee non-stop yelling for near an hour before we got them all snuggled into their beds.

• Advise on the local news included gems such as check your gutters to make sure they are clear so when the snow melts you won't have problems. Is that really a good idea? Sending people on their snow covered icy roofs to check the gutters?
• Snow plow came at 7pm so technically we're free. Problem is that the snowplow routinely plows a pile and dumps it directly behind our car, so we're not really free yet (by the way, it was the new snowplow contract company).

• Got an email from Fairfax County Schools - school is cancelled until Jan 4. Now that's a snow storm!! Actually they just cancelled it Mon, Tues and Wed. The rest was holiday anyway.
• Don't worry...we have two bananas left...if you're a regular reader, you'll understand what I mean. I take it as a sign we weathered the storm well.

Contract Issues

Our homeowners association has a contract to have our snow plowed. They chose to change companies effective January 1. They must have ticked someone off in the negotiations. The old company decided that they don't care what happens to us now. We got more than 18 inches of snow and the old/current company couldn't care less. They don't plan to come. They let it accumulate enough that they cannot get us out now. Now it is too heavy for the snow plows to move it. They would have to rent a front end loader to do our roads and they don't want to. Basically they flipped us the bird. The new company is willing to do it, but can't get the heavy equipment either. There are going to be some pretty ticked off people who can't get to work to earn money to feed their families for five days. Chaps my hide. Brian did get himself out and over to an older couples place that he home teaches over by the mall with our 4x4 truck. I suppose it is possible then, but not for the car or most the vehicles in our 176 home complex. I hate politics. For now I will try to enjoy being snowed in. Sort of. You can believe that if given the option tomorrow, Brian will opt to stay home from work and play with the kids one more day. Honestly, who wouldn't.

Snow in the News

Last night I was watching the news. The snow storm, okay, the blizzard was the headline story. The weather report starts each night at 11:17 pm. It's precise. Predictable. I must stay awake each night until 11:20 when the 5 day forecast shows across the screen. Every night this is my routine. Then I can rest if I want, zone out if need be. If sleep takes hold of my body that's fine, the sleep timer on the TV will take care of it. Last night however I didn't need to wait until 11:17pm. The one and only story across the entire news last night starting from the very first moment was the blizzard that had already begun. They had incredibly valuable reports like the lady doing a live report from the local grocery store. There were no bananas left in the store. None. What craziness! What mayhem! How will we ever survive? One lady they were interviewing had been to three stores, count them, three stores and all three were completely out of milk. We're all going to die!! Other stupendous, not to be missed news reports included:

• why you should not go out in the snow if you don't know how to drive in it
• if your car isn't properly equipped to handle the weather don't go out
• if you go out even though you shouldn't have gone out, make sure you do this and that
• there are no bananas at the grocery store
• schools x, y and z are closed tomorrow
• live phone reports from Virginia and Maryland Departments of Transportation telling us that they have definitely decided to plow the roads (as opposed to what? doing nothing? of course they are going to plow that's what they do)
• there are STILL no bananas at the grocery store

I'm not sure what the root cause (I think nerdy engineer every time that phrase escapes my mouth) of my non-fear attitude is. Is it growing up in Utah and having had snow every year of my life growing up? Is it my complete and total elation about the gorgeous fluffy white wonderland that emerges to cleans the world and mute the business by insulating us from all noise? Is it because I try to live my life and keep my home at least somewhat prepared for emergencies? I have wheat and a wheat grinder so I can make bread (assuming we have power). When I shop I shop by the case, not by the can of food. We drink powdered milk everyday of our lives. We may run out of bananas, true. But we're going to be just fine. We will not starve.

My favorite thing ever is that they were reporting on people running out to get gas for their cars. Please, someone, tell me why is there a run on gas? Isn't the big story that we won't be able to leave our homes? So..........what do you need gas for again? Enough said. Now go out and make a snowman with your kids, shovel your sidewalks for you and an elderly neighbor, catch a fluffy snowflake on your tongue and enjoy the gift of winter.

Snow's A Comin'

I can hardly wait. Last night I heard a quick blip on the news predicting snow. Not just a little snow. Six to twelve inches or MORE. MORE!! Houston didn't get snow. That was sad. Virginia at least gets some but not every very much. This is so exciting I can hardly stand it. I just want to sit in the kitchen bay window and begin watching even though it won't start until tomorrow morning. Usually when it snows we get all of two inches. It us more often than not a work day so Brian is gone and babies have to nap so I have to stay inside and keep them warm and cozy. I'm not free to go out and enjoy with my children. I think the very best part of the impending snow is that our calendar is totally open tomorrow. We are free! Free to play! Free to sled with the kids. Free to enjoy the pure happiness that will ooze from their souls as they explore and enjoy God's beautiful white wonderland. We are free. And I'm scheduling a playdate tomorrow. I can hardly wait.

Legitimate Snow Day

The Snow Day this time seemed a bit more legitimate than the last one. We got a ton of snow. It was all powder though. Powdery snow and wind. The kids and I had a hard time keeping our eyes open on our hill because he wind would whip through the field and blow the snow like a blizzard. The snow was so dry that despite a valiant effort, we couldn't really make a snowman and the sledding hill wasn't slippery in the least. I had to pull the sleds up the hill, hold hands to get the kids to the top, then PULL them the entire way down to keep the sleds moving. What a joke. So, sledding didn't last long.

We ended up in the backyard having a blast. My favorite part was when Ben asked Maddie, "Would you like to come to my class?" Maddie, "Yeah Ben." Ben, "Good, it's a snow angel class. Mom, I'm going to be teaching Maddie how to make snow angels, okay?" We slid down the slides on the playground contraption in our backyard into piles of fluffy snow and used the beach bucket to make little snow castles for a while. It was hard to get the snow castles to stay together, but Maddie and I managed to get a row of them built. Then the kids searched for sticks to make flags on every one.

When I went to the front yard to grab a shovel to clear off the deck, Ben destroyed all the snow castles Maddie and I had made. Every one was completely gone when I returned 90 seconds later. I asked what happened and he said he didn't know for a few times. I'm not stupid. Then it was an accident that he destroyed every last one. Yeah right!! Liar, liar, pants on fire. I asked again, reminding him to tell the truth. Still, it was an accident. I reminded him another time that when we choose to lie, we choose to lose a privilege. He lied again that he didn't know how they all "got gone". Eventually, he came clean that he had wanted to destroy all the castles. He wasn't allowed to watch is favorite show as his punishment for lying (not for destroying the castles). Why does my child insist on lying about things that don't really matter? I hate taking privileges away, but the kid's gotta learn he can't feed me bold faced lies.

We ended the day with a playdate at the Hyatt's house. The kids had a wild and fun time doing all sorts of silly indoor things like having a band with kitchen spoons and empty #10 cans and other fun things. We had dinner and then FHE. Emma (7 yrs old) taught us about prayer then we played animal charades. It was fun. Then we took our tired, cranky kiddos home and threw Maddie right into bed. Ben decided he was still hungry when we got home at 8:00 and asked if he could have some bread. He got a bag of hamburger buns for his snack and we went upstairs. After 20 minutes he hadn't come upstairs yet so we went to check on him. He must have been starving. He had eaten three whole buns and was working on another one, which he abandoned half way through. Glad he got a snack because he slept like a log until late the next morning.

Fun day.

Sledding Take Two

Brian took the kids sledding in the snow Tuesday. Tuesday night we got sleet and freezing rain. Wednesday everything was covered in ice. Brian worked from home again and I took Ben and Maddie out to sled again. It was less than successful. They could barely walk. Maddie kept falling and crying. Ben did okay and was excited. We climbed the hill together a few times and sledded down. Maddie got mad if Ben went without her. Then she would sit on the sled and not let us go down. She just wanted to sit and be pulled around. Finally she said she wanted to go inside with her Daddy. I pushed her down the hill on the sled while she screamed she didn't want to go down the hill. Then I walked her to the house. Ben was excited to be outside and sled alone with me until we got to the house. As soon as he saw her go in, he decided he was done. End of the day. So we didn't have much fun today. Next time I'll take the snow day.

My Husband Hails From Florida

Brian got up to shower and get ready for work this morning. I went down to the kitchen to get breakfast for Maddie. When Brian came downstairs I was surprised to see he was not in his regular work attire of a collared shirt and tie. He was sporting a classy neon orange t-shirt and blue jeans. I questioned, "So I see you're not planning to go to work today. May I ask why?" His reply, "It's a snow day of course." I looked out the window and laughed. "What? Are you from Florida? That's nothing. I thought you were from Utah." He assured me that he was from Utah but most people that live here aren't.

There was a liberal leave policy in place for the day because of the snow and he was choosing to take it. The day turned out to produce 2" of snow by dinner time. The kids did better today than ever before at letting Dad work except for one time in the morning. I got them all dressed in their snow gear to go in the backyard to play in the snow. I told them quite specifically that Daddy had to work right now and that he could maybe take some playtime at lunch. They were both finally all bundled up and the headed down the stairs...straight to Brian and asked, "Ready to go play outside Dad?" He was more than happy to oblige. He took them sledding in front of the house. Then Ben helped shovel the walks. They both had lots of fun and came back inside happy and hungry.

Then it was back to work and I made lunch and tried to entertain the rest of the day inside. Ben did some puzzles with me and Maddie found the dress up box and enjoyed some time playing doctor. I think we need Aunt Kristie to teach her how to use the stethoscope properly. Then she found the pool toys and just had to wear the swim gear for a while.