A Wet White Day

Joe left very early this morning to visit his dad in Oklahoma and left in the middle of a thunderstorm that soon turned to ice and snow storms. I was thinking we may be in trouble as soon as it was light because the rain that was coming down was freezing as it was so cold on the ground. Often that is what happens before the power lines go down and we are out of electricity for hours or sometimes days. Since we bought the new generators after last year's ice storm, I think we may never have to use them. It is funny/strange how that is how it works sometimes.

While we enjoyed the snow coming down, my sister and I pretty much just sat around and visited. The weather let up just in time for the road crews to clear the roads before my son Joe had to go to work. The boys were trying out more of their new Wii games and we watched new movies.

Boxing Day

Yesterday was wonderful. We spent the day at home. The little boys were told not to get up before 7:30 and we were sipping our first cups of coffee and enjoying what was in our stockings at nearly 8 a.m. We have a tradition of opening gifts one at a time, and in some order as each of the boys opened a gift and after they opened a couple Joe and I would open one.

We had a brunch of an egg scramble and cinnamon rolls. Later in the day we decided that no one wanted another big meal so I fixed the macaroni and cheese and a ham for a late dinner. My sister and Kevin came over to spend a few days and my nephew Alex also came for some visiting time. The boys tried out new games and Joe brought up Rock Band to try out the new guitar.

Today started out rough as I had to get up and help Daniel before I even had a chance to get my shoes on this morning. There is more than one reason that I wear shoes and the most important one is that I don't like to stub my toes. Well, it's too late this morning. As I was passing through the great room into the kitchen I stubbed my toe royally on the edge of the couch, and I suspect it is broken. I hate going without my shoes, and it is rare for me but oh well. The pathway was narrowed more than usual because Daniel still had his jungle set he got for Christmas set up for play. He has had so much fun with that toy set.

We did get to play Scene It with Anne this evening. We played the movie version. I won a game and Anne won the next.

Merry Christmas Everybody!!!

It's Time to Celebrate

The morning of Christmas Eve has arrived and the boys were up early again! I had to make the jello salad and the cherry cheesecake early enough to chill for the dinner this afternoon while they were eating breakfast, so I started that right after I showered and dressed this morning.

We spent the afternoon at mom's for a dinner and the little kids did a gift exchange. We had 19 there for dinner, including all 10 of Mom's grandkids. Mom topped off the day by giving herself a gash on her finger as she was getting the meat off of the turkey after dinner. Joe had just sharpened the knife when he did the carving before dinner.

We made our gift deliveries before and after going to Mom's and we didn't get home until well after dark. The boys didn't get to their cookie or countdown surprise until after nine p.m. The surprise was Jan Brett's The Night Before Christmas, of course. This version has many wonderful surprises in the pictures on the sides of each page.

Still in a Freeze

Joe and I went into Wal-Mart for eggs and fruit and ended up coming out with a full cart. I did all my shopping on the grocery side. It is amazing how little food is left around our house since we have been out of school since Thursday. I was feeling pretty good as my gift shopping and wrapping were finished, and we were just picking up enough to tide us over until the Christmas leftovers were done.

The boys and I also baked over 9 pounds of cookies for family and neighbors, and a few dozen for here. The dough was made and I just set myself to baking one batch after another. I tried a new recipe for chocolate covered pretzels, but I didn't like it at all. The recipe was much like my no bake cookie recipe, but instead of adding quick oats I dipped the pretzels into the mixture, and there was no peanut butter. The pretzels got soggy and the chocolate was dry. Raymond liked them.

For tonight's countdown surprise the boys opened the book Here Comes Santa Claus. There is only one cookie left on the boys cookie ribbons when they went to bed tonight.

Here is Daniel reading to one of his new friends.

Gingerbread and Sugar Cookies

The weather report--it is 6 degrees below zero F, but the sky is clear and the sun is shining brightly.

Despite the threat of snow and ice later today, the little boys and I ventured out to visit Grammy's house. The mission: Raymond and Daniel were making cookies with their grandma and visiting with their cousin Kevin. My sister enlisted me to another journey, out to shop for some gifts she still needed to purchase. So after the first gingerbread boys went into the oven and other gingerbread people were being cut out, we set out to find those last items on my sister's list. It was a good thing that we enjoyed the trip, because otherwise it was a bust as she didn't find either of the items she was searching for and we had to get back to the kids before mom left for an afternoon meeting. We picked up pizza for lunch and visited while the boys played for a couple of more hours.

The boys and I made it home before dark with a box full of our gingerbread family and an assortment of sugar cookies.

The countdown surprise tonight is the story Santa's Toy Shop. We are looking forward to Santa's visit.

Baby Steps

Getting started...Why, that's easy!

This time of year at our house we often watch the Christmas program called Santa Claus is Coming to Town. In the story, young Kris Kringle sings a song about change..."You put one foot in front of the other and soon you'll be walking 'cross the floor. If you put one foot in front of the other, then soon you'll be walking out the door."

No matter what it is that you want, or have, to do, you can only do it one step at a time. Keep focused on your steps as you go. Once you get finished with a task, or feel steady doing a new part of your routine on a regular basis, then you can concentrate on your next task or habit to make.

Winter Arrives with a Dip...

...In the temperature that is. We had a high of 9 degrees F today. As I am on the recovery side of this cold bug, we didn't go out today at all. The Chiefs lost yet another game to end their season. I couldn't even watch them play in the cold. It was no advantage to their game with Miami Dolphins.

More cookies were baked today; chocolate chip walnut and peanut butter.


The surprise today was the book, "Bialosky's Christmas", another Golden Book. A bear prepares for a Christmas party, and it is fun to see the mess behind each of his creative efforts. There are only three cookies left on the cookie ribbons now.