Snowflakes Are Kisses From Heaven

So we had a nice Christmas, an exceptionally white Christmas, but that didn't stop us from having lots of fun. The road by our house was so bad for the whole week before Christmas, that for the most part only trucks with 4-wheel-drive could get up it. We only got mail delivered once in 10 days and no garbage picked up for over two weeks. Here is an ambulance that got stuck on our road two days before Christmas.

They lifted a person out on a gurney and pushed her/him up the hill. Here's video.

We had a power outage that lasted for several hours, and then, when the power came back on it fried the electrical panal in my oven rendering it entirely useless. Since the roads were so bad that I couldn't just run to the store and buy food for non-oven meals, I had to figure out alternate cooking methods for all the meals I had planned.

Here's how we felt about that.Laurel, Eric, Stevie & Allie came to visit. Roger's brother Mike wanted pictures of our kids to give to his parents, so we took this one with Stevie. We thought about sending this to them and claiming Stevie was one of our children that we had never told them about. Ha, Ha, a secret we somehow kept for three years.

Eric's reaction.

When I was about 10 years old, I got three sets of Jody Dolls and all their accessories. Laurel, who was seven years younger than I was, asked me through most of my teen years if I would let her play with my Jody dolls. I always said no (how mean is that?) because I wanted to save them and give them to my daughter someday. When I finally had a daughter old enough to give them to, I was very dissapointed because Caitlin could care less. She was into Polly's, not Jody's. While staying in Caitlin's room, Laurel found my Jodys, and at last, after 30 years of longing, she could play with them. In fact, I gave them to her, something I really should have done long, long ago.

Each night, we have the kids report on whether or not they got all their chores, homework, practicing etc. . . done for each day. When they do all the "stuff" for 12 days, we give them a candy bar in a special presentation. The theory is that public recognition is a more effective motivator than any prize. It seems to work.

Here's Roger doing a presentation for Joseph. (Don't worry, it's short.)

Here's a presentation for Caitlin.

Laurel wanted a presentation too.

(What some people will endure to get a candybar.)

Stevie got one too!

During the day on Friday, the roads were horribly slushy with ice underneath and the snow fall was so heavy it was blizzard-like at times. There had been little plowing at all on most side roads for days so there was like 6 inches of nearly frozen slush on our roads by Friday afternoon. It was easy to get stuck in. We helped several people by our house get unstuck Friday afternoon. Late, Friday night, about 11:00 pm, it warmed up to 40 degrees which was really weird because it was warmer at midnight than it had been for 10 days. Saturday, the snow had melted enough for us to get around and do a much needed shopping trip, but the going was rough. The side roads and parking lots were like craters of the moon but slippery. When we got home, Roger shoveled snow off the road to our house (imagine clearing the road, the whole road, because no snow plows would come and do it). It was a huge job, but he made two tire track lines for us to drive in so we could get out safely and go to church on Sunday. We still almost got stuck twice on our way to and from church, but Roger's expert driving saved the day. Over the course of 13 days, we probably got 18 inches of snow altogether, which never really melted until today. We have never been so glad to see rain and 40 degree weather in all our years living here. Someone (not me) prayed for a white Christmas. They got it and then some.
A little too much love.

How's the weather at your place?