the current landscape here looks a bit like this :
lots. and lots. of snow. there's at least 2 feet in most places, with drifts that are much, much higher.
it started snowing on christmas eve. we made decorated sugar cookies in the morning, to pass the time. we went back and forth on whether we out to go out to my mom's (20ish min away), or have her come here (since she has an SUV and no kids, LOL) - but we ended up going out there in the early afternoon.
we opened presents, had an early dinner, tracked santa on norad for a bit and headed back home by about 5:30. definitely a rushed celebration!! now that the bigs are, well, big enough, we had finally been getting back into our tradition of playing board games after christmas eve dinner, but we didn't want to be stuck there for the night. the wind was gusting big time and the snow was blowing a lot, and the roads were going downhill fast even as we made our way home.
when we got home the boys played with new toys from grandma and grandpa, and we let them open a present from us - connect 4x4. we played a few rounds of that - and it's waaaaaaaaaay harder (and more fun) - than connect 4.
then carrots for the reindeer and cookies for santa, and an annual attempt to get a pic of all three of them under the tree. which was an annual failure. LOL. and a little more santa tracking before reading our stack of favorite christmas books together, and then off to bed.
up early. had to break out the speedlight for the stocking pics, but we took a break for cinnamon rolls after that and the sun came up while we were eating, so i was able to ditch it for the rest of the pics. sam packed and unpacked his stocking about a zillion times, and his little head just about exploded when his brothers gave him the play food set that he'd seen at target and had been talking about ever since. matthew got a video of it, and it's awesome. he also got a stove from us and spent the rest of the day cooking. the bigs were thrilled w/ their legos that matthew had run all over town for, thank goodness, or he might have thrown them out into the snow. ;)
the socks and underwear, however - well, they went over just as well as they did last year. ;)
at this point matthew bundled up and went out to see what the road conditions were like - we're about 1/2 a block from a major road, so he walked down there. and decided there was no way we were going anywhere. we spent the rest of the day in jammies - the boys played with all their new toys, we opened presents from family that wasn't in town, and we generally enjoyed having no where to be. legos were built, play food was cooked, and we were thankful that my mom had sent us home w/ leftovers the night before!
we'd been plowed by saturday, so we forced the boys to get dressed up and go celebrate with the rest of the family at my grandma's house. sam's sweater vest = the cutest thing ever. we were all ready to get out of the house by then, and it was good to see my extended family. i'm glad everyone's schedule worked and that we were able to get together a day late.
on sunday matthew took alex and ben sledding, and then we celebrated with his dad (and i haven't even started sorting through those pics yet!) matthew had yesterday off and we ran a few errands, and then matthew and his dad took the bigs to see rudolph at the children's theater.
and now it's back to reality. me and a house of three crazy boys. no fun plans. a tree that needs to go away. cleaning and purging that needs to happen so that new toys can be put away. scrap assignments that need to be done this week. i guess i should be happy that it's never boring around here, huh?