Christmas 08

We had a great Christmas! The weather outside was frightful, but we had no travel plans and we didn't leave the house except to play in the snow (more on that later). The kids woke us up around 6. We'd set up the baby monitor, and after listening to them talk about their unopened presents, we heard Caleb speak directly into the monitor, "You're listening to the sound of silence." They loved their presents. Especially the Nerf guns which they've been shooting pretty much non-stop. But they also got clothes, Legos, candy, Chacos, skis, ski boots, My Little Ponies, slippers, and more clothes. Obviously that's a total list, not per each kid. Jennie wrapped the ski boots and running shoes I'd bought myself over the last month or so, she knew exactly what I wanted. I got her a vacuum cleaner and a case of Palmolive. Ha! Ha!

So while we watched old home movies and Prince Caspian I molded my ski boot liners and we tried to eat all our candy. I also put Seth to work waxing his skis, and then he and Caleb tried them out on our snowpile. We probably should have done that before the wax, but they had fun slipping all over the place. We'd thought about taking the three older kids skiing at Targhee today, as under 12 were free, but the road conditions made us decide not to. We found out later that it was a good decision as 2 of 3 main lifts were closed all day due to high winds. Abby built an igloo in the backyard and Hannah slid down the snowpile on her new tube.

Grace decided she'd start talking yesterday, and it's been lots of fun to talk to her. We spent a couple of afternoons with Dan and Jason and their families at my parents' house playing with cousins and sledding down the rapidly drifting road behind the mule (Kawasaki, that is). We've had the suburban in 4-wheel drive for the past 4 days, and I'm thinking of renaming it a USV - ultimate snow vehicle. I'm sure the snow will end, but we're loving it for now.