Christmas Eve Gathering

Dave, Jen, Gabe, Alex, Luke, and Savanna joined us for some cookies, visiting, and a little bit of Rock Band on the XBox 360.

After some begging by Carleigh:

We let the kids each open 1 gift - a new ornament for the tree.

Carleigh's is a Precious Moments girl holding a string of bells.

Tyler's is a shiny blue ball with Jimmie Johnson's "48" on each side.

Alyssa's is a ball with some of New York's highlights.  I picked it up at the gift shop at the Empire State Building in October - she was quite surprised - and had a hard time figuring out how I managed to get it and get it home without her seeing it.  :)

Christmas Eve Buck

We awoke in the morning to find a 4-point buck in our neighbor's back yard - bordering our back yard.  He appeared to have an injured hind leg, so he was in no hurry to jump the fence to leave.  He hung around for a good hour or so, before finally being scared away by the neighbor's dogs.

He was a large buck, which just goes to show how deep the snow is!

Still?!?!?!

Yes, it is still snowing!  OK, it hasn't been continuous - but it sure feels like it.  We are getting hit pretty hard again today.

We did venture out of the house a bit - had to get out to finish our Christmas shopping - and to make sure the kids got a chance to see Santa.

So much for "global warming" - I say, bring it on!

Snow Day!

WOW! You know, we thought last January's snow was bad...and we've been cautiously optimistic about this winter - we made it to mid-December with no real snow to speak of. But...so much for optimism - we are looking at possible record snowfall for a 24 hour period, and we have already beat the snowfall totals from last January!

The snow started yesterday morning, and it has not stopped yet.  Here are a few pics that I have taken.

I took this from my office downtown yesterday - early afternoon.  There was visibility of only about 4 blocks.

This next picture was taken last night.  This is our old artificial Christmas Tree, which is currently standing tall in our front yard.

The snow continued all night - here is the same tree as of this morning:

At about 6:30 this morning, here is the pile on our back deck.  In case you can't see the numbers, there was 18 inches - and it is still snowing!

Just for a little perspective, here the kids are standing just inside the door, with the pile on the deck showing behind them.

The kids' school is closed, as are all of the local public schools.  City hall is closed, the hospital has canceled all elective surgeries scheduled for today, and the city transit system has had only a few bus routes open, and it sounds like they may be about to close those also.  They are reporting on the news that there are surrounding areas with as much as 2 feet of snow.

John ventured in to work this morning, and he just called to let me know that he made it safely.  The kids and I will be staying put!

Happy Birthday!

Wow! 11 Years Old!  (OK...not officially until later this week...but close enough to celebrate) Time sure does fly...

There was a definite theme amongst Alyssa's gifts - art, art, art...

A collection of supplies - acrylic paints and watercolors.  And an artist's easel.

And now, for the fun part!   What's this you ask?  The landscape of a distant planet?

No, just the surface of the giant cookie Alyssa requested in place of a birthday cake...

And it must have been good...this plate is getting scraped clean!

It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas!

After Thanksgiving, we received a visit from some of our favorite people - Auntie, Uncle, and Cousin Leigh! As expected, Uncle and Mike (without a bike) became fast friends!

On Saturday, the kids put in some time decorating the tree.  Be sure to note the white stuff on the ground outside!  There wasn't a lot, and it didn't stay too long, but certainly added to the atmosphere while we put up the Christmas decorations.

As always, the kids did a great job with the tree!

A Thanksgiving For Which To Be Thankful

Thanksgiving was a little different for us this year. My dad's knee surgery two weeks prior prevented my parents from joining us, but we were blessed with the presence of other friends and family members with whom we don't usually spend Thanksgiving.

The kids had a great time playing Rockband on the XBox 360...





...but our youngest just couldn't keep up with the big kids!

We stayed up until the wee hours of the morning playing Euchre - a new card game for John and I - we had a great time!