Lets just say this is a white Christmas here! We are loving it so much. Christmas Eve it snowed nice and pretty during the day. Job rigged up a snowboard and used a little "hill" the neighbor made from shoveling snow and boarded down it. Lona sledded down the hill. Her hands looked frozen. Why doesn't she have gloves on? Job and Lona tried to bribe us to let them open presents early. They did 70 burpees. Burpees are squatting down, push your feet out behind you and do a push-up then return to the squat position before standing up and jumping. John and I just sat there watching in unbelief. They got to open one present, but they still had to wait until Christmas Eve. I am looking so forward to my photography class. Maybe I'll be able to get better photos than this. The only photo that turned out Christmas Eve. So sad.

Our church cancelled Christmas Eve Service so we went to the church next door. It was fun to walk over in the snow. They had a wonderful program. They sang Christmas songs and then had this great talk about the life of Jesus. They had all the kids come to the front and handed out cards for the kids to read. They they had a cradle set up on one side of the front and a cross on the other. The kids moved around with the pastor. Then a man dressed in costume of Jesus came out and he wandered through the sanctuary with the kids following him. He ended at the cross and leaving the stage through a door. Then he returned and then "disappeared". Since this was more spontaneous on the kids part our kids went up on stage too. Both Isaac and Job read from their cards. There were times that the kids had to respond and I wanted to sink through the floor. Isaac is such a ham! Afterwards we all stood around the room and they lit the candles while singing. I really enjoyed it. We came home and opened our one present.

Christmas morning we woke up and headed down stairs. While John made a pot of coffee the kids opened their stockings. Isaac has it in his head that he needs to help with the stocking stuffers. So this year at the Awana store, the kids bought stocking stuffers for everyone. This is a bonus for us. Job's comment was after opening stocking stuffers, "I just got everything I wanted for Christmas." Gloves, gum, a webkin and a Lego person. Then the kids played a couple of songs on the piano while we sang, We Three Kings, O Come Emanuel, and Away in the Manger. Piano lessons are definitely paying off. Of course, they can't yet play at church but it was better than our a cappella that we usually do. We read from the Bible and then prayed. Finally we opened our presents. The house looked like a disaster - all day.

Our neighbors across the street took me out cross country skiing at the church next door. I only lost my balance 4 maybe 5 times. I've skied once since moving here, but boy do my heels have blisters. LOL. Our other neighbors had a cancellation and so asked us to come for Christmas dinner. We went over around 2:30 and came home at 8:30. We had so much fun laughing and talking and eating. Needless to say we did not have our lasagna yesterday. We'll have it today before I start dieting again.

The kids spent a good twenty minutes picking up: boots, gloves, scarfs, empty boxes, dirty and clean dishes. My home feels peaceful again. John has assigned them 30 minutes of chess homework today. Go figure. John is off at the stores. He received an airplane yesterday and within 5 secs of it being in the air he proceed to rip the tail off. Bummer.

As I look outside I see that it is snowing again.