Christmas Snow!

This is Lon and Miss Sarah's Snow man from Friday. Taken this afternoon, Saturday.

This evening it started to snow, just about Lon's bedtime (7:30/8). It has not stopped. The forecast wind has not hit here, yet. It still might, some places are without power. We are not.

Here is the little snow man a few minutes ago, just after midnight.

I used a "measure stick" and it was over 6 inches. Lon doesn't like the word ruler, he calls them measure sticks. Since I took these pictures a few minutes ago, Lon is sound asleep so there are no photos of him, but I will have photos of him playing out in the snow tomorrow!

From the front porch, just an idea how much snow is falling, still.

Without the flash, you do not see the individual snow flakes, but this will give you a visual of how deep the snow is. The luminarios are about a foot tall. I did not dig holes for them to sit in.

The only downside of this is that if it keeps up we will be having hot dogs for Christmas Dinner and it will just us! I have not gone to get our roast beast yet. But we will keep watching the weather and see what happens. At least I have presents almost all wrapped. Next up, building the train table! WHOOHOO. I thought it might be nice to get that thing built before Christmas so he and Daddy can play with it right away!

Miss Lindsay!!

Today we got a visit from Miss Lindsay! She is on her way to see her sister a little south of here. We had a nice visit. She brought Mark and I beautiful knots (I will post a photo of them soon) and Lon a Peruvian hat with ear flaps! Which is something he needed. I sent Miss Lindsay on her way with a big bag of cookies!

I did not get very many photos this visit. They posed for me in front of our tree. Lon is modeling his new hat!

Then they got a little goofy.

We LOVE Miss Lindsay! We hope she can stop by again on her way home.

It was nice to see Miss Lindsay.

Today was sort of stressful for me. I went over to a friend's for a playdate. We ended up going sideways down their driveway. (seriously, I am not exaggerating that. sideways) That was very scary for me. Getting out of the driveway took an Angel named Gary. I tried to get up the driveway, could not. A guy drove by in a full size pickup truck. He tried to guide me up. That was NOT happening. I could not get traction. He came back down the hill and parked beside my little car. He could not find a tow ring in the front of my car. SO he got a shovel, pulled some dirt out of some snow free flower beds, scattered it on the iciest spots, and then let some air out of my tires. Lon and I walked up the steep driveway and waited by to see if Angel Gary could get up the driveway. He put it in low and gunned it. He made it up! Lon was jumping up and down he was so happy. Lon was very worried we would not get home. I told him we would one way or the other! I had the stroller, warm clothes for him and the cell phone. We would make it home. Angel Gary brought my little car up the hill and parked it beside me on the street. It was so nice! And right after we got home Miss Lindsay came, it was truly wonderful to see her!

Building a SnowMan with Miss Sarah

Miss Sarah came over on Friday and helped Lon build a snow man while Mommy finished up the cookies.

It was still snowing. The snow was dry, so it was difficult to make the snow man. They gave it a good effort!

Trying to scoop up snow

I did not get a picture of the final product. It still exists, so I will get one and post it in the morning. They had fun. They got cold, but they had fun and Mommy got the cookies done.

The Newsphoto

This is the photo from the newspaper. Since the links are fading, I thought I would post it here.

The photo was taken by Joshua Trujillo.

Very nice.

Snow Boy

Saturday night it started to snow.

Sunrise on Sunday morning. The snow has stopped falling.

Okay, let's get out of these jammies and into snow clothes!

Got Mom's old hat on my head and my snow clothes and a shovel. What more could a boy need?

I think my nose is cold.

I am not about to go inside though. I put the camera down and played with Lon in the snow, and we made snow angels in the front and backyards.

Tonight, Monday, they say it is to get down to 15 degrees. Wednesday it will snow like crazy, 3 to 6 inches. Not above freezing till Sunday, with more snow! another 3 to 8 inches likely. We very well could have a white Christmas! WHOOHOOO! I am starting to get some baking done. Lon is helping. I made divinity today. Cold and clear weather is perfect for divinity, and it did turn out perfect! Last year, it was just too damp to even think about divinity! Lon is not so sure he likes it, but he will later.

The Decorated Tree

The tree with just the lights.

Lon is getting ready to hang some ornaments.

Lon is such a good helper!

Ta-Da!

A little tree, I found some battery operated rice lights. They are great!

We have all the outside lights done now. Maybe we should do the other two windows.....

SNOW!

Tonight, the family watched How the Grinch Stole Christmas, decorated our wiggle tree, and made some cookies. Then we noticed it was SNOWING. Now, it is seriously snowing. We should have 2 to 3 inches or more by morning. WHOOOHOOO. I am pretty excited about the snow. The temperatures are not supposed to get above freezing till THURSDAY. Monday should be a terrible commute. Good thing Lon and I can stay home. I should work on the guest room and get some presents wrapped and moved around so Mark can work from home. The desk is now covered with wrapping paper, tape and presents. So is the floor and the little bed. But it should only take me an hour or six to get the room a little more organized, and Mark allowed/able to be in there. (his presents are yet to be wrapped)
As everyone saw in the paper, we got all our out of town gifts wrapped and GONE! Oh! I did another search and we made USA Today. This is so cool. Lon is so cute!
I will miss going to my new church if the roads are as terrible as they are saying. Yes, I am still catholic. This is just a smaller church, located in a truck driving school.
Pictures coming soon

The Tree 2008!

This is it. A little bit of a bent trunk. Yes, we went in the dark, in the rain and the wind. For next year, we have decided not to do that. It is a nice tree, with a wiggle.

Pirates

Today was Lon's last pirate class for the session.

The weather was icky, and supposed to get ickier, so the class was small. As if weather would stop us! Pirate Captain Laura is teaching the kids about directions and how to read maps.

Lon leads the pirate band toward the treasure, as listed on his map.

Treasure! WhooHoo!

After class was over and Lon safely stowed his treasure with his mom the kids played in the gym room. They ran around and had a good time until all the rest of the mom's showed up to get their precious pirates.

Lon did sign up for Pirates again next session. It will be fun!

We are going National!

Yep, the photo of Lon and I at the post office is now on the AP Wire and so far I have found us in Miami (both in the sun-sentinel and the Neuvo Herald), the Chicago Tribune. Some other photo sites on the web have picked it up too. How cool is this?
I am not sure about Lon but I am thinking this might be my 15 minutes of fame.

We are in the Paper!

Lon's picture is in the paper! Seattle PI, page A-20. COOL
Yes, Mom yours is on the way!

We made the Online paper!

http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/photos/

Very cool.

Mailing Boxes!!

Today we finally got all our boxes ready to be mailed. We are done done done at the post office!

I brought Lon's Santa Hat, like I do every year at the post office. We went in and got a cart, and loaded up the boxes. As I was doing this, Lon was in the cart. The window of the car next to us rolled down and a nice young man asked if he could take Lon's photo. Turns out he is a photographer for the Newspaper. They are going to run a feature on people mailing stuff, and he thought that Lon in his Santa hat with all the boxes would be super cute.

I think he is super cute!

I will let everyone know if/when his picture is in the paper.

Molbak's Festival of Poinsettias

Every year Molbaks does a Festival of Poinsettias. They have a huge tree made of the red flowers and so many varieties of them that I can not list them all. Big ones, little ones, red ones, white ones, variegated ones. It is all so pretty. Lon and I got dressed up and off we went! Lon wore a regular shirt until we got to the parking lot, then he changed.

There were only a few benches for photos this year. Last year (see last year's blog) there were lots of fun stations for photos. This year, not so much.

Lon did find something he really enjoyed. All the animals. I loved the big lion in the pith helmet. However, we just don't have room for it...

Lon did look so cute when he turned and told me I could get him one of the little animals!

Some of the varieties of poinsettias

I liked the way they had these displayed. They had a light in the glass blocks, very soft light. The blocks just glowed. Very pretty.

No, not the people who look they are arguing, but the cheerful blue and white snowman display!

Every year Molbaks provides samples of their Danish Kringle and coffee or tea. Lon took a sample of the kringle and ate most of it despite the face he made here.

Yes, Mom, I did get a poinsettia for the house. It is very pretty. It is called Nutcracker Pink. I will try to get a photo of it soon.

Lon had fun today. As soon as we were back in the parking lot, his pretty sweater came right off!

Oh! I took these with my brand new Christmas present! Can you tell?

Happy St. Nicholas Day!

These are the rice krispie treats I sent my sister. She should have them on Monday or Tuesday. Lon helped put the frosting garland and the mini m's. Alot of Ms went into his mouth. He likes helping.

White chocolate coconut truffle middles, not yet middled. These are for my mother.

Finished truffles, rolled in toasted coconut. Very yummy! But I am sending them to my mother for her Christmas present. I put them in a pretty box, but I did not wrap them.

We had to run some errands today, (getting one of Daddy's presents), and while we were in the parking lot, Lon talks to Auntie KK on the cell. He loves Auntie KK.

When we got back from errands, Lon found his St. Nicholas Day presents. More for Lon's little people Nativity set. The Inn part is from Godmother Carol, the other two pieces are from St. Nicholas, Via Mommy. Lon LOVES it. LOVES LOVES LOVES his Nativity.

This is Mommy and Daddy's Nativity. Grandma Phis got most of it a long long time ago. I am still searching for a camel.

This is Lon's Little People Nativity all laid out in front of the fire place. It is HUGE! He has 5 camels, sheep, dogs, cows, donkeys, three wisemen, with their own tents, a little drummer boy, 3 shepards, two inn keepers, a manger, a barn, an inn, lot of palm trees. It is very cool. A few minutes after he wakes up in the morning it will not be like this!

The whole mantel area. It is starting to look like Christmas at my house!

The downstairs tree. It is fake, about two feet tall. I have TONS of lights on it. All the old ornaments that Grandma Presken gave me are on this tree. It is out of Lon's main play area. Last year we did not put it up. I like this little over lit tree. I think you can read by the tree.

That is most of what we did today!

The Afternoon with Ty

Today we had the honor of having Ty spend the afternoon at our house! It was very fun. Loud too!

There were games of chase, hide and seek, tag, and all were Mommy/Auntie involved! One favorite game was see if we could push Mommy/Auntie to the floor and keep her pinned. That was fun!

Ty discovered the dancing chicken. Yes, it plays a chord or two of We Wish You a Merry Christmas, followed by the chicken dance. Where it dances across the floor. It's cheeks light up too. The most fun Ty had with the chicken was seeing if he could place it in such a way that it would run into me. Attack of the dancing chicken. Ty thought that was hilarious. It was funny.

We had Kid Cuisines for lunch. Pizza, always a favorite. Even so, Chex Mix is yummy. We do have the big Christmas decorated plastic bowls that are our Chex Mix bowls. Our mix is heavy on peanuts, and Worcestershire sauce. (Mark's mom put in the butter in the amount of the Worcestershire sauce and the sauce in the amount of the butter! and it is really good that way!)

One problem I had taking pictures of the boys is that they are always moving. I took 16 photos today, and these are the only ones were one, or both, of the boys is not a blur. I have to learn to use my Christmas present ASAP!

The boys found the Don't Break the Ice game. They love it. They like smashing out the ice as fast as they can, over and over again. We listened to Christmas music all day, but as they day was winding down I put on cartoons. Both boys were sitting in their chairs, watching TV and being quiet. They almost fell asleep! We got that nipped in the bud! Ty and Lon have a great time together.