Christmas Eve

We had such a great Christmas Eve!

Alli came to visit for the weekend and we loved having her.  Unfortunately, she did catch the nasty stomach bug that has been going around the neighborhood and was sick most of the day.  Luckily, it's a 24 hour bug and she was better the next day.

We had a snowstorm on Friday so there was a great layer of snow.  Steve took Anna to the nearby ravine to do some sledding while I did some dinner prep.  They were gone for more than an hour having a blast.   Anna loved the sledding.  She met up with some of our friends from our old neighborhood: Skylar and Rylee.  She wanted to sled with only them.  Skylar wouldn't, but Rylee did.

Later, we made our ornaments.  I wanted to have an ornament that Anna could do and that used materials that I already had laying around.  Luckily, I noticed a few people had made cute holiday people from craft sticks.  I have a bunch of those, plus felt and paint, so away we went.

I used the craft sticks to make a snowflake and a Christmas tree.  Anna painted both of them with the paints.  After she finished those, she went off to bed for her nap and the rest of us worked on our ornaments.  We made ours a little different.  Steve made a snowman, I made a snowman and a Rudolf, and Alli got into it the most.  She made a snowman, elf, Santa, and Rudolf.  It was a lot of fun.

That night we had our fondue dinner.  I thought that I was conservative in cutting up the meat, but apparently I over-estimated and we had a lot left over.  It was delicious.  Anna had fun stuffing herself with ham and chicken dipped in honey and trying shrimp for the first time.  Luckily, Alli was feeling well enough to join in for dinner.

After Anna was in bed, we ended the night by watching A Muppet Christmas Carol.  The perfect ending to a great day.

Snowman

Last Saturday we woke up to find that it had snowed during the night.  Anna was excited.  She's told me that it should snow every day because it's winter.

Steve headed out to shovel the driveway with Anna in tow.  She grabbed her little garden shovel so she could 'help' Daddy.  Mostly, she ended up stomping on it and eating it.

The fabulous duo then headed to the side yard and made a little snowman.  Steve did most of the work, with Anna adding a handful of snow now and then.  We found a hat and scarf that we weren't using, a big carrot, and a couple of rocks for the eyes.  Anna was so excited to have her very own 'Frosty'.  The next day, she almost cried when she noticed that Frosty was melting.

The Perfect Day

We had a great day on November   .  It was the first big snow we've had this winter, and it was great!

We woke up to snow falling and it didn't let up all day long.  Steve decided to work from home, instead of driving in it.  Because of that, he finished up a little early and headed out to shovel the driveway and sidewalks.  Now, if you know Steve, you know that he likes a really good snowball fight.  While he was out shoveling, some of the neighbor kids came out and Steve couldn't resist rounding them up and starting a fight of boys against girls.

As soon as I got wind of what was going on, I bundled up Anna in her winter clothes and we headed out to join the fun.  Actually, Anna joined; I watched and documented from the sidelines.  I think we spent a good hour to hour and a half out there.  The kids had so much fun and Anna was ecstatic!  She was picking up the snow and throwing it into the air.  She tried throwing snow at the kids, but she had to get about a step away from her target to hit them.  They were really patient, though, and stood still until she had thrown her snow.  Her favorite part was eating the snow.  As soon as she discovered this cold treat, she lost all interest in throwing it.

After we were all cold and tired, we headed inside.  I didn't want to make dinner at this point, so we headed to a new Chinese restaurant that opened next to Soelbergs.  Anna loves Chinese food, especially the noodles.  It was pretty good, although the room was a little cold from the constant stream of people coming in and out of the door.

We came home feeling satisfied and settled in front of the fireplace.  I had made cookies earlier in the day, so we ate cookies and drank warm apple cider.  Anna played and Steve and I read until it was time to put her down for the night.

To cap off this great day, Steve and I settled down in front of the TV to watch Pride and Prejudice, the Kiera Knightly version.  We went to bed tired and happy after our perfect day.

Potpourri

Just a quick update.  It's a little of this and a little of that.  This past Thursday, Steve and I headed toAbravanel Hall to watch the Vienna Boys Choir.  I've always wanted to see them, especially after 4 years of German classes.  Our tickets had us seated on the third tier in the front.  That translates to the third balcony up- we were almost eye-level with the chandeliers!  There was just a single line of seats, so I sat behind Steve through the first half.  During intermission, Steve said we should go down to the orchestra level because he was getting a headache.  The music was pretty good.  There are 100 members of the choir, but they split up into 4 different groups when touring, so there were only 25 kids singing.  Some of the pieces were beautiful, right up their alley, but some were very disappointing.  The Vienna Boys Choir should not sing ABBA, the Beatles, Sting, or Queen.

It has been a beautiful fall here.  In fact, more like an extra long summer.  The snow held off here until the day after Halloween.  Anna was so excited, she just wanted to sit in the window watching it come down.  Every once in a while she'd point and say, "Snow! Snow!"

The day after Halloween was also the day we headed to the dollar store to pick up some cheap dress-ups.  Anna's really been into hats.  She had a prairie bonnet and a cowboy hat that she would put on all the time.  She also turned various buckets into hats.  So at the dollar store, we added to the collection.  She now has a sombrero, a straw hat, and a pirates hat.  We also got some fairy wings, a couple of necklaces and little tutus.  She has had fun dressing up in all these new clothes.

Sledding

Yesterday morning, Saturday, we woke up to at least 8 inches of snow on the ground.  Wonderful!  We bought a couple of sleds a few weeks ago, but haven't been able to use them.  Yesterday was the day.  The original plan was to head up toward the Oquirrh mountains and find a great hill.  I, being the over-reacter I am, planned for every eventuality.  Extra food and warm drinks, blankets, and a call to the Ricks to let them know where we'd be, calmed my nerves about maybe getting stuck in the snow.  That didn't work out when the road we were following dead-ended in a field.

Our back-up plan was the gully here in Stansbury.  We've seen kids sledding there before, but wanted to see if we could find somewhere a little quieter.  After parking on the side of the road, we suited Anna up in her pink snowsuit and sat her on the sled.  Unfortunately, the snowsuit didn't allow for easy bending.  She slowly sank back until she was laying flat in the sled.

Steve and I each took Anna down the hill a couple of times and Steve and I went down on our own a couple of times.  We had a lot of fun.  Anna tolerated it.  She had this serious, stoic look on her face.  I think that was more funny than anything else.  After about an hour, we took a picture of us all together and headed home.  It was a blast!