This Week Amongst the Snow

Winter has been fun so far! It's cold, yes (around 28 degrees, though --nothing like Utah!), but the humidity makes things freeze shut quite quickly (like car doors and our sliding glass door). It's stunning, really, and the kids aren't sick of the snow quite yet. We are grateful for the dry roads, though, so Brandon can go to work.

Tuesday was a full-on snow day! School was cancelled, and although it hadn't started snowing, yet, they were very wise to do so. By 7:30AM, the roads were impassable. In fact, Brandon had to stay and work from home. All church activities that night (scouts, activity days, and mutual) were cancelled. With the kids being home,  I was prepared to make them clean their rooms (which was a desperate need), but I gave them a magical holiday, instead. It included:

*A hot breakfast of eggs, bacon, blueberry pancakes, and chocolate chip pancakes
*Playing in the snow for hours; sledding, building a fort, snowball fights
*Making them chocolate chip candy cane cookies and watching "Elf"
*Making dozens of paper snowflakes for the Ward Christmas party on Saturday (I'm in charge of decorations)
*Eating pizza for dinner
*Trashing the house with all the coming and going and snow and food

It was actually really fun to watch them have such a great day! Our neighbor kids played with them a bit, too (mostly just #1 and #2's friend from across the street) and it was nice to let them be kids. Watching #1 with #5 sledding down the hills in our yard was especially sweet. Even #6 ventured out and it was so sweet to see the bigger kids pulling him all over the yard in the sled. Here are some photos (and a video!) from that day (I made the Mexican hot chocolate for them on Monday night):

Wednesday (yesterday) was chore day for me. I cleaned and did laundry and it felt great to mop the kitchen floor! When the kids got home we did homework and cleaned their bedrooms. I had phone conversations with my mom and my BFF (separately, of course), and I completed our Christmas cards! Dinner was wonderful because I made a balanced meal (chicken, rice, vegetables, bread, water --sounds so boring, but it wasn't!) and they ate it! I also started teaching piano lessons to the kids again (taught the girls last night, I'll teach the two oldest boys tonight). Brandon did a Costco run and brought me some yummy things:

I have a cold, today, so I'm declaring a day-off. Later I'll have errands when the kids get home, so I'm okay with being lazy this morning.

Other things:

*We've decided to make Christmas a little simpler this year. The kids will get their Santa stockings, one Santa gift (that's normal for us, anyway), two gifts from mom and dad, a gift from their sibling (they draw names), and whatever else they get from relatives/friends. I'm hoping instead to fill our days with serving (we've already done some of this), singing (we need more carolers in our family!), and playing games. We'll see how it goes!

*The post office in our village is the cutest thing I've ever seen! Well, the whole village is, too. So, the "downtown" part of our village has one three-way stop. And about three buildings and a parking lot (down the street is a really nice park, though, with a gazebo, playground, baseball diamond, walking trail, and restrooms). In one of the old buildings, there is a hairdresser shop, something else (I don't remember what it is) and the post office. It's tiny and the old brass post office boxes are something out of a historical novel! They were incredibly nice and the postal worker joked with me as I shipped packages and bought stamps. My father is a letter carrier, and so I have a thing for post offices, and I couldn't help but wish my parents lived here and my dad worked at this one!

*We signed #5 up for preschool! It's local (about 3 miles away) and exactly what I wanted. Not too academic, not too silly. He'll start next month and will go three mornings a week.

*Funny story (sort of): last night at dinnertime, Brandon was coming to the dinner table after he got home from work, and I said, "You haven't kissed me, yet!" and so he walked to me as the kids started saying, "Eww! Gross! no!!' and so Brandon, all dramatically, wrapped his arms around me and we kissed deeply as our kids all started to scream. However, they all screamed so quickly and so loudly that #6 was mortified and covered his face with his hands and started to cry! He was so scared! It was both adorable and sad. We comforted the poor kid and I told the kids they should be glad their parents kiss each other. "This is the gospel personified, people! This is an eternal marriage!" But they didn't care and said it was still gross. I'm secretly hoping they think kissing is gross until they are all 20.

*I love Christmas. The End.