News From the Frozen South!

It's a balmy 37 degrees and we are STILL iced in! Above is a photo of our driveway taken at 3:40pm. This stuff just refuses to melt! We have just received word that there will be no school tomorrow for the fifth day in a row...that's right! A whole week off, stuck in the house! Now groceries are running low, as I did not ever believe things would be like this for SO LONG! All we can do is laugh and make the best of it, right?! At least the power, cable and internet have stayed on and we are warm, dry and entertained.

Here is a photo I took moments ago of the ice on the yard. As you can see, it is just a thick, hard sheet. One of my friends equated walking across it to walking across a creme brulee! You break through that top layer and just fall right in!

The kids did get some time playing in it and had fun for a while.

 They built an odd-looking 'snow-monster' and just dug around in it.

 McGinnis wore his new 'Jo-Jo' hat that I made him! (We don't have any idea why he calls it that, but that's what he decided it is!)

Sim got creative in cleaning the ice and snow off his truck...yep, that's a garden rake! And I'm just staying inside as much as possible, trying to keep warm. I did season my cast iron cookware today! I've only had it about a year and thought it might be time! I've also done a little sewing.

Not too much to report...just an update!

Snow in the Deep South!

Well, we NEVER get snow...but we have it now! Last night, it started snowing at about 9:45pm (45 minutes later that it was supposed to). We were beginning to think the predicted 'snow-pocalypse' was just a ploy by the grocery store industry to sell more bread, milk and eggs! When it started, however, boy did it start. After only 45 minutes, our deck looked like this:

 Then, in another hour and 15 minutes, we were up to this:

This morning. we woke up to a complete winter wonderland! The measurement on our deck was a whopping 6 3/4"!!! Sim said he believes this is the biggest snow of his life! The children are in complete amazement and Dave is ecstatic!

There will be another post later about our escapades of the day, so check back!

Day 2 of Elf Antics

This morning the children rushed out of bed to discover the latest escapades of our visiting elf, Zachary and to their delight and amazement, found all the dining room chairs stacked in a big tower with the elf sitting proudly on top!

There was much speculation about how he accomplished such a feat, contemplation over whether he made the stack the same height as Santa and was he drawn to the red velvet seats because they reminded him of Santa's suit. Emory Grace and McGinnis also discovered he had eaten 2 of the 3 crackers they put out for him and drunk all of his water, when he had eaten or drank nothing the previous night. Also, they remembered that McGinnis had sprinkled Zachary quite liberally with the magic snow at bedtime, so they guessed he had LOTS of energy. I suggested maybe we don't sprinkle quite that much on him every night lest he start turning over furniture and creating real havoc.

In other news, we spent a delightful evening last night with our Westminster family at a banquet honoring all the lower school intermural basketball players and wrapping up the season. Our principal, Mrs. Callaway had fantastic hooded sweatshirts made for the players as a reward for their hard work and willingness to pioneer intermural sports at Westminster. (This was the first season and something the school is trying to develop.) In the next few weeks, Emory Grace will begin playing basketball on a rec league team that is part of the Downtown Ministries, which was started by our church to reach the unchurched in downtown Athens. This will also be a team of new players as most of them have not played before according to the executive director, Ben Farnsworth. Emory will be one of the more experienced players on the team. She continues to develop her skills and I imagine she will turn out to be one pretty awesome basketball player! She is not the best shooter, but she is aggressive and not afraid to get in the middle of the fray and fight for the ball. She will most likely find her talent as a center. She is very good at guarding, but still seems vastly unaware of her height and the massive advantage it gives her. Once she grasps that, it will be a complete game changer for her and she will take off!!

McGinnis continues to make wonderful progress with his reading and writing. He can read more and more and has to sound out less and less. It just amazes me to see him growing and learning. He is a complete joy and bundle of energy that I can't imagine my life without!

Who Knew?!!!

Last week at school, Emory Grace learned from some of her classmates that you can attract one of Santa's elves to your house by writing a letter to Santa and leaving it out with some crushed up Saltine crackers and a small glass of water. The crackers remind the elf of the crunchy snow at the North Pole and the water reminds it of melted snow, which is where they apparently get their water. Once the elf comes, he/she sends the letter on to Santa and then hangs around, making mischief until Santa comes back on Christmas eve. At that time, the elf returns home with Santa, but can be attracted again next year. Who Knew?!!

SO...on Saturday night, we dutifully put out crackers and water, along with letters to Santa and went to bed, anxious to see if anything would happen. Lo and behold, when we woke on Sunday morning, there was a small elf hiding in our Christmas tree!! You cannot imagine how surprised we all were! He was holding a green sack that contained a card stating his name is "Zachary," a small jar of magic snow dust from the North Pole that we are to sprinkle on him at bedtime each night (this helps him come to life) and a letter telling about why he is here and how long he will stay. As you can see, he is a cute little fellow and the children love him!

This morning when we woke up, Zachary had apparently found all the Christmas puzzles and a Santa Mr. Potato Head. It appeared he and Mr. Potato Head had been trying to work the puzzles...quite unsuccessfully as all the pieces were in a big mish-mash pile and they were sitting in the middle of it! Oh well, at least Zachary found a playmate and they seem very fond of each other!

Emory Grace and McGinnis can hardly wait to go to bed tonight to see what Zachary will get in to next! Christmas will be quite exciting at our house this year! We'll keep you posted on our many elf adventures!

New Blog! Here we go...

So, I changed blogging sites as this one is supposed to be easier for a beginner and more user friendly. We'll see how it goes! I was going to e-mail the video to everyone, but the file is too big to send as as attachment. This is my attempt at sharing it. People are still coming up to me and commenting on her voice and ability to hit all the notes so well. I was even asked today if I had any idea she could sing like that! Of course, I did know...just nobody else seems too! I hope you are as impressed as everyone around here seems to be. You'll have to turn the volume up on your computer to hear her. She sings third, right after the chorus.

Other than this, we've had a routinely crazy weekend: Emory Grace had a Christmas party with her Girl Scout Troop on Friday night, then played the last game of her inter-mural basketball season on Saturday, after which we dashed to downtown Watkinsville for the annual Christmas parade. Today, we had a party with our friends to celebrate the 41st birthday of our friend, Jennifer and are now dashing out the door to Lessons and Carols at church! Whew! I'm getting exhausted and the season is just getting started!