Be Good for Goodness Sake!

The reindeer have been here to check on the kids to see if they are being naughty or nice. That's how Santa can tell if you get a present or not. Of course Santa can't watch every child in the world so his reindeer run around and check on the kids and God okays the list before Christmas Eve so that Santa does not make a mistake.

A few days ago when she was getting off the bus Alyssa noticed the prints on the roof. She smiled at me simply said that they were back. I smiled and off she went.

I don't know if Alyssa still believes in Santa this year. After all, you don't really want to say there is no Santa just in case the presents from him disappear. But this is how she explained the prints all over our roof last year. (The prints were from the squirrels, but her version was so much cuter.)

Snow Day

Wednesday was declared a snow day by the entire state of Wisconsin! Over 15 inches in some areas was enough to close everything down. Even the state government was closed for the day. We wound up with close to a foot of snow. Luckily we knew school was canceled before we even went to bed so we thought we would be able to sleep in. But when the kids are outside your window hooping and hollering about the BIG, HUGE, ENORMOUS snow man family they planned to create sleeping in becomes a little hard. They debated a snow fort, a snow ball fight, building a sledding run, etc. Then they discovered that it was not good packing snow because the snow was too dry. Such bitter disappointment. But it was still fun to be outside with all that white fresh snow.

(Insert a mental picture of the kids bundled up in their snow gear.)

To say the kids were delighted would be an understatement. They were outside playing in the snow drifts before breakfast. Nicko went to work on shoveling the driveway without even being asked. Someone told him that shoveling snow was good for the pectoral muscles.....so off he went. It was very hard work and I think he was more than a little happy to get help from Dad and two of the best neighbors in the world.

(Insert a mental picture of Nicko very seriously shoveling
a foot of snow off the driveway and a photo of the
John Deere tractor that has a snow blowing attachment
that Joel drools over every time he sees it.)

We had a fire thanks to our wonderful neighbor that brought us a huge load of firewood to enjoy. We played countless games of checkers and Uno in front of the toasty warm fireplace. Mom was the checker champ of the day! ;-)

(Insert a few pictures of us hanging out, the checker
board, and the roaring fire in our fireplace that was
perfectly decorated for Christmas. You believe me
right? Just say yes.)

Daniel, Isaac and Alyssa made a pile of paper snowflakes that now decorate our sun room.
This picture was taken Thursday (today). Notice the big icicles and of course the beautiful snowflakes.



Snow days are so fun because they are unexpected little pockets of time to catch up and spend time together as a family. It is so wonderful to have the snow storms raging outside while you are safe inside tucked in front of a fire and your kids are chattering and playing throughout the house. I love snow days. The kids love snow days.

Unfortunately the pictures I took are all stuck on my photo card and I cannot get them into the computer. Daniel also took some pictures and his are stuck as well. So he gets a little of the mental image credit. If I ever recover the pictures, I will add them to this post.

...And It Doesn't Show Signs Of Stopping!

It's snowing. It's been snowing all day. It's going to snow all night. It's going to snow all day tomorrow. :-) The kids have figured out that we have a 70% chance of having a snow day tomorrow. There is something special about the first snow of the year that makes us giddy and excited. It is so beautiful and peaceful. Shoveling the driveway is even fun when big huge snowflakes are floating down from heaven. And since we are all home safe and sound.....Let it snow!

My Thanksgiving Tradition

Every year I like to make cranberry sauce. It is so good with turkey. I made my own recipe and I get to make the cranberry sauce for our Thanksgiving dinner. This is how I do it. First I start with cranberries, sugar, an orange and water.


I put the cranberries in the pan with some water and cook the cranberries until they pop open. Mom adds a little bit of grown up orange flavor to the hot cranberries.


Then I squeeze orange juice and add it to the cranberries. Mom strains the cranberries for me because they are too hot for me and I do not want to get burned.

Then I add the sugar to the cranberries and orange juice.

Then I stir everything together.


Then I pour the cranberry sauce into a pretty bowl. Happy Thanksgiving Everyone!