Death of a Snowman

Once there was a snowman tall, Tall, TALL! In the rain he melted small small small

Snow Problem

This is what several inches of nice fluffy snow looks like......with Tucker walking on top of it......thanks to a layer of freezing rain...
...which can be pulled off in sheets...
...and thrown like a frisbee.

Sleigh Ride

Well, inflatable kayak ride, anyway. With temperatures well above freezing and rain falling we know the snow won't last long. But there's time enough for a few more runs down the hill in our backyard. Cooperation makes that hike back to the top easier. The trip down is pure joy. Just be sure to hold on to your mitten.

A Christmas Fable

What Cole wanted for Christmas:
What Cole got for Christmas:What we can all learn from this:

• Never look a gift horse in the mouth, unless you need its teeth for some other project.
• Necessity truly is the mother of invention.
• Invention is the mother of destruction.
• The "child-proofness" of anything is limited by inventiveness of the child.
• A key in the hand is worth a set of screwdrivers in the bush.
• Never put off until tomorrow what you can accomplish today if you just improvise a little.
• If you touch an uncovered light switch in the wrong place it can be "really hot" (according to Cole).

High Speed Holiday

Christmas at 16x normal speed:

And at 0x speed: Later we built a snowman. It was perfect Christmas weather with a foot of snow on the ground, more falling and a warm fire inside. And so, as Tiny Tim observed, God Bless Us, Every One!

'Twas the Night Before Christmas

We spent Christmas Eve at the Zabriskie's home. After dinner (which included some incredible rotisserie chicken) the boys decorated and consumed cupcakes. What little didn't make in their mouths remained on their hands and faces. But the real fun began after they gave the boys a BIG! DUMP! TRUCK! Grant immediately latched onto it and Cole seemed content to play with all of the other toys, except for the ones Grant was able to load into the back of the truck while he ran laps through the house. Grant even insisted on carrying the truck home on his lap.
And then he refused to go to bed without it close enough to touch, as if it might drive away in the night. Thanks Mona & Papa Z!

Livin' in a Winter Wonderland

This is the view from our front porch this morning. And from our back deck. This is probably the most snow we've gotten at our house in the six years we've lived here. There would be a lot more on our larger vehicle but I made a quick trip to the store last night. If you look closely at the windows you can almost see the ¼-½" of solid ice from the freezing rain which put a crisp shell on everything, including on top of the 10 inches of powdery snow. It started falling yesterday so we put on the boys' snow suits (available from Outdoor Adventure Kid) and took them out to enjoy the falling snow. Fortunately, we have a decent sledding hill for kids in our back yard. Some pictures say a thousand words. This one screams just two: "NAP TIME!"

A Visit to St Nick

We attended the local elementary school bazaar recently and got photos with Santa! Well, some of us did. Bryn was great. The boys on the other hand... The photographer, our friend Alex, just managed to get Grant's horrified profile in the frame. Cole at least gave Santa a high five before refusing to sit on his lap. It was a different story two years ago. Grant tolerated Santa and Cole loved him.

Pillow Talk

We still have the baby monitor in the boys' room. Their conversations when they should be sleeping run the gamut from the inane to the sublime. Take the following, for example:

Grant: I like Lucille's owie
Cole: I like Lucille's owie
Grant: I will give her a big bandaid. A BIIIG bandaid.
Grant: You have a bruise. I will give you a bandaid
Cole: I don't want a bandaid!
(Awkward silence)
Grant: good gwief (repeated several times)
Grant: I like owies. I don't like big owies. I just like little owies.
(pause)
Grant: I like to get to ride on the train
Cole: I like to ride on the train

I like how they reached a consensus at the end.  Inane or Sublime?  Yes.  Definitely.

Another night they were talking about an airplane.  Grant became a speech therapist.

Cole: I saw a a-o-pwane
Grant: Not a-o-pwane, ep-pwane.  ep, ep, ep.  ep-pwane.

And tonight:
Cole: What is outside?
Grant: (in a growly voice) A BIG, BAD truck!

Now, if you'll excuse me, I need to go confiscate a container of marbles that one of them snuck into bed.

Places to Love

Since I've always loved children's books, my good buddy Kara gave me this great one in the P.E. days. (P.E. = Pre-Evan.) All the Places to Love. At the time I received it, I thought the day would never come that I would be reading it to my little men. Alas - they came, they grew, I read, and this has become one of their favorites as well. The book became course material in our "preparing for Brynie" training. The other day, I saw Grant looking at it thoughtfully, and he told me this page was his "favorite part." (The big brother holding his little sister's hand.)
Then he turned back a page, where she was born, and told me this was my favorite part. How perceptive. (I admit to increased exuberance when I read his page.)
Grant has an especially soft way with Bryn. Cole is less emotional about it all, and would be just as happy if we got rid of the baby, and gave him the bouncy seat.
And I am still in awe of how much I love this little girl. More at this moment than I did in the middle of night when we had what I'm calling our "girls night up." Oh well. They're so tiny for so short a time - why would I want to sleep through any of this precious time?
Why? Because I'm exhausted, darn it!

And a Partridge in a Pear Tree

Hey kids! Here's a fun Christmas game you can play: Find the objects hidden in the Christmas tree below. Things to find:

• dump truck
• Lightning McQueen
• package of pull-ups
• cardboard box
• tyrannosaurus rex
• "Mammals" book
• "How Animals Move" book
• "Where is Bear?" book
• Dave Barry book
• 2 packages of baby wipes
• 1 slightly used baby wipe
• wooden block
• green plastic cup

Stop on by and play the home version. New items are being added and removed hourly when the boys are awake.

Okay, I admit that some of those items aren't readily visible in the photos, but we really did find all of them in our tree.

Habitat for Humanity (Witch Division)

Christmas time and candy-based contruction has been a tradition in my family for a long time. Here's our efforts in 1982. Naturally, my sister placed herself front and center for the photo. In my family we always used graham crackers as the basic building blocks and added frosting and candy. As the years progressed our skills increased and our ability to include as much candy as possible improved. This one is from 1989, when only my three youngest siblings were living at home: Note my younger brother's M&M paved yard, showing the height of candy excess. He had also probably filled up the inside of his building with candy. Through the years our productions became less about candy encrusted houses, and more about grand visions requiring the hands of a surgeon and the soul of an artist. Here's 1996: Note my older brother's rather spartan marshmallow man tableau. Also from 1996, my grand igloo: Now it's time for me to pass on the tradition. A friend offered to make real gingerbread panels and even glued them together beforehand so all we had to do is start adding candy. Grant started off strong but soon became more interested in placing the candy in his mouth. Cole really got into the spirit of the thing and did almost all of his own candy placement. Here are the final products, with Grant's on the left and Cole's on the right. Of course, now they're both very interested in un-placing the candy. Ma even provided the ideal tools for candy removal. Cole is quickly becoming adept and levering out even the most stubborn pieces. He's a regular little Hansel.