Cabin Fever

Life's been a little nutty here. I realize it's been a long time since the last blog, so here are a few highlights from Nov. and Dec. Nov. was a busy month w/ our Enrichment Dinner and The Thanksgiving Holiday. I have a new enrichment leader, she's absolutely fabulous. The dinner went very smoothly and we had a great lesson on keeping Christ in Christmas, followed by some musical entertainment. The Lamb family invited us over for Thanksgiving dinner. We provided a few desserts and salad. We had a great time eating, visiting and working off our meal playing football afterward. They have such a great family! The kids had a terrific time there as well, which was a huge bonus, especially considering there weren't any other children their age.

Two of the regulars in the backyard.


Two of the captives, watching as Jillian and I wait for her school bus.

The day after was a rainy football game involving people from church. I decided to go play, since I never get to and love playing. I was, of course, the only girl there, but to my surprise (and theirs, I think) managed to hold my own playing w/ the guys. I had a lot of fun, but awoke the following day sore and with a huge bruise on my thigh. Definitely worth it! ;-)

December brought our cookie exchange (great idea). I ended up w/ 6 doz. cookies (all different varieties) which were distributed between our family members and the neighbors. We also got a Christmas tree at a tree farm around the block from us. We had our ward Christmas party on the 12th. I was Mary and sang Mary's Lullaby w/ 2 of the angels. Poor Claire had been sick for a few days so she and Donald stayed home.

Snow fight!

Now for the excitement...I do most of my Christmas shopping throughout the year, so as to avoid trying to budget for it and schedule time for it when there is so much other stuff going on. Thank goodness for this b/c we've been snowed in for the past week! Oh, don't be alarmed...we don't have a lot of snow, but b/c it rarely snows here everything is put on hold when it does. Some of the roads are plowed, but most aren't sanded, which makes them pretty slippery, and no one has snow tires.

It started Sat. night. Jillian and I drove up to Anacortes to see The Nutcracker. It was beginning to snow then. We had a great time. To quote Jillian, "It was even better than I ever could have imagined!" After the performance we stopped and got dessert and then headed back. Most of traffic was going about 20 mph (on 50mph highway). Then we rounded a corner and stopped. Traffic was as a complete standstill for about 30 min. Then we slowly began the trudge home. It took about 2 1/2 hrs. to get back! Thus began our exciting week...no school for the kids, no church 2 Sundays in a row, no Christmas party for Donald's work. I haven't driven anywhere in the car since last Monday...and I'm starting to go a little mad being holed up in the house w/ my kids all day, everyday. It would be fine if they would go outside and work off some steam, but all but Jillian are big babies (just like their mama) when it comes to the cold. We'll spend 30 min. getting them bundled up to go out, 15 min. playing outside and another 15 min back inside stripping off all the snowy clothes as they whine in front of the fire about their hands or feet hurting them. I haven't decided if it's worth the effort. I did voluntarily go out and gather/chop firewood yesterday afternoon and I felt much better after that. I'm hoping the roads are better this week. We're supposed to get together w/ Lisa (my sister) and Russ up in Ferndale on Christmas day. Pray the weather will allow it.

Adding Frosty's hat

Frosty and Hank

Posing w/ Frosty
Funny quote of the week: Claire was throwing an impressive fit the other day and Hannah asked me what was wrong w/ Claire. I said, "Oh, she's just being a little crazy." Hannah looked at her and then responded, "No, I fink she's being a whole lot of crazy."