Christmas Day 2008

Christmas Day we woke to more snow! Yeah! It is a White Christmas, one that we "dream" of having, right? (Unless it is day 10 of snow!) Well, I am tickled white to be having more snow, I couldn't help but sing, "It's the most wonderful time of the year" while I was preparing breakfast! Because of the weather forecast, we decided to postpone the Iacolucci gathering. However, my girls wanted to venture up here and have dinner with us and Scott's parents. So we had the spaghetti, garlic bread, salad and a key lime cake for dessert! Then we opened gifts! I gave Addie a darling doll that Dina's friend Heidi crocheted and it can go in the microwave and be warmed, she can hug it and snuggle with a warm doll! Jalen got a car that rev's it motors and runs and says, "It's time to start the race!" He loves it! Caleb got a set of two remote control helicopters that he and his dad can have "air fights" together! (At their house!) Santa left a big Karaoke machine at our house for the girls and they were thrilled. Ellie and Lily love to sing and dance and perform, so they are in their element with this --and to top it off, they got a Hannah Montana wig! Do you recognize the "Snook Rock Group"? Ellie is the lead singer!

Christmas Eve at the Snooks

We still have snow and lots of it! We received a call from Bill and Elsa on Wednesday morning saying that they were still out of power and would really like to come to our house where it is warm. So Scott and I ventured out and picked them up along with my dad. I still had lots of "Mrs. Claus" work to do to get ready for the evening, but Elsa helped with the potato salad and my dad helped with the meatballs for the dinner with the Iacolucci's on Christmas Day. Their help was greatly appreciated! Because of the abundance of snow at our house, we decided it was best to meet at Dina's for our Christmas Eve dinner. So we loaded up the old folk and headed down for a wonderful evening with Lacey's family and Dina's family. Addie was so cute in her little red "tutu" type skirt with white shirt, white leggings and red shiny shoes! Jalen was a little man in his jeans and a long sleeve collared shirt! Ellie and Lily were wearing their new dresses that Great grandma Elsa and Papa Bill bought for them - one white and one red. Caleb was wearing JEANS! We never see him in jeans and he looked soooo handsome with a red collared sweater! He said his mom made him wear the jeans - he looked so great!

The 2008 December Winter Wonder Land!

It all began on Sunday, December 14 when I woke to a yard full of quiet whiteness (is that even a word - it perfectly describes what I saw!). It snowed all day and was so beautiful! It even snowed on Monday and that was the day Lacey and family were returning from their two weeks in Hawaii. Dina and Jamie braved the roads and brought the kids up here to go sledding. Jalen really liked going down the hill in the backyard. He kept doing the sign for "more"...he loved it! I ordered a car service to pick Lacey's family up at the airport as they were getting in at 11:30 PM Monday night and the roads were icy and slippery and nobody wanted to go out that time of the night and drive to the airport! Tuesday Aaron dropped Lacey, Caleb and Addie off at our house so we could see them after missing them for two weeks and so they could go sledding. In no time, the Snook group showed up and we all had so much fun sledding (Lily says "sleighing") down the hill. Addie didn't take to the snow so much the first few days as she was running a fever and not feeling so great. I did manage to get some pictures with her in the new hat I knitted for her!

From the 14 - 24 it has continued to snow and we even had some freezing rain. We had about 5/8 inches of ice on top of our snow. We woke on Sunday the 21 with no power and the house didn't take long to get a little chilly. Both Scott and I were wearing our hats inside the house. He managed to scrape off the snow on the truck and we ventured down to the Snooks house where it was warm! We spent all day there, even went out looking for some lunch and ended up at McMenamins as all the other local restaurants were closed (except Papa Murphy's!) By 6:30 PM that night, the power was restored to our house so we went home.

Now we have about 18 inches of snow, and drifts that are even deeper. You can't even see the pond in the backyard as it is all covered with snow. The bridge over the little creek is also hidden with only a slight hump in the snow! This is the most magnificent and awesome scenery that God could create. I am just in awe of the beauty of every thing when it is covered in white. The trees look so graceful with their branches bending down loaded with clumps of snow.

As usual Bear Dog comes in very handy when it is sledding time, as he LOVES to carry the sleds back up the hill for us! We love you Bear Dog! And he has no problem just laying down in the snow and letting Aaron cover him up with snow...what a gentle great dog he is!

Tomorrow is Christmas Eve and the forecast says more snow in the morning and through the day with possible freezing rain in the afternoon. We will see what happens. Will we have to postpone Christmas?? Can't wait to find out!