Bonfire

Grandma had a huge brush pile that needed to be burned, so that was our family fun on Thursday. (Isn't that how everyone celebrates Christmas Eve?!?)

Brady and Rudy were hard workers, loading logs into the golf cart to take over and adding them to the fire. Brady was the hero of the day when he noticed that one of the barns was smoking, helping to avert that disaster!

When my dad was getting ready to go over to Grandma's he told Brady what we were going to do. Brady came to find James and I and said, "Papa said we're going over to Grandma's to build a bonfire. Is he telling the truth?"

It's tempting to hijack Brian's facebook page and make this his profile picture :)

Family Christmas at home

We spread out the Christmas cheer every year with several mini-Christmas parties. We had our "family Christmas" at our house this year with Kelly's parents and Brian, Rebecca, and Lila.

Brady and Rudy also exchanged their gifts: a metal Blue Angel (Rudy was very specific with his wishes) and a squirmle for Brady (he was a little disappointed that it doesn't actually move all by itself!). We also gave the boys their gift from us: a trip to Great Wolf Lodge in January :)

More sledding!

Bobsled run

So it finally stopped snowing last night. By our measurements, we topped out right around 21 inches. Some areas of town are at 2 feet.

We got the final layer off the driveway and did some more playing and sledding today.

The boys, on top of the igloo:

Sledding with all that snow is hard work! We pretty much had to pack down our own run. We made it even larger after this video. With a push from the non-riding adult, it was quite a "snow-ler coaster," as the kids were calling it!

Snow, and more snow!!

At latest measure (about 4:30 this afternoon), we're up to about 20 inches. We took a long break inside this afternoon - Christmas crafts, The Grinch, and 'snow cream':

We headed back out again this evening for MORE shoveling. The kids were very helpful, moving some of the snow with the toboggans.

They loved being out in the snow. We didn't get any complaints about being cold or having snow in their faces!

Brady is standing up in the snow. I doubt his feet are actually on the ground. Rudy is trying to make his way over:

Whew...he made it!

After making some progress on the driveway, we tried out some sledding down the street:

Still happy when we came in:

Snow!

We were up to 18 inches when we measured this morning and it STILL hasn't slowed down! We are definitely not going anywhere anytime soon!

The boys checking out their igloo (notice Charlie racing back inside...she is not impressed and refuses to pee!)

In the igloo:

Happy kids:

We headed over to the golf course for some great sledding!

Still happy, even though he's covered in snow!!

That's a lot of snow!

James and I got a jump on the snow shoveling (and playing) tonight while the boys were sleeping. It started snowing around 4 and we had several inches within hours. I took these pictures right around 11, and I'd say we easily have 14 inches. As you can see, it hasn't slowed down any either!

We learned in Pittsburgh to shovel early and often...so hopefully that chore won't be too onerous tomorrow. James worked really hard building his igloo. He's convinced it will last through the night so the kids can enjoy it too.

I love Christmas lights under snow...not very often that we see that around here :)

Preschool song

Rudy had his preschool holiday party today. Each class performed a song and Rudy's class did the "reindeer pokey." The video isn't great...please excuse the nose-picking little girl in front of him :(

Baking assistance

My cookie helper:

Sleepover (almost)

Ben and Bella came up for the evening so their parents could go out. After running circles around the house (literally, but then that’s why we picked this floorplan!), they collapsed for pizza and then banana splits and a movie.