A Christmas Miracle

First off, I hope everyone had a very merry Christmas yesterday!! It was just the four of us again this year, but we had a wonderful time hanging out and enjoying each other's company. Sadie seemed to enjoy her first Christmas and of course Ethan was in heaven.

Here's a little recap of Christmas Eve and Christmas day:

We started out by going to Denny's for breakfast on Christmas Eve. Paul's mom kind of started the "going out to breakfast on Christmas Eve" tradition and we liked it so decided to roll with it. We tried going to a local diner but it was closed. So Denny's it was! It was good, and they even gave Ethan a little present- this sweet Hot Wheels car!

The rest of that day we lazed about the house, watching tv, taking naps, just being bums. It was awesome. In my family, we have a buffet on Christmas Eve, with cold cuts for sandwiches, baked beans, deviled eggs, fudge, Christmas cookies, etc. Well, with just us I decided that all of that was a little over the top so we had cheeseburgers instead. Yummy! I sure missed my mom's deviled eggs, though. But I made a Rice Krispies treat wreath to make things a little more festive.
After dinner we acted out the Christmas story, another Snow family tradition. Paul read from Luke 2 and Ethan and I were Joseph and Mary. Sadie was a little too wiggly to be baby Jesus so we used a doll instead. I guess Sadie was a sheep.

Then it was time to feed Santa's reindeer! I mixed up some "reindeer food" and we went out and sprinkled it onto the snow so Santa's fleet wouldn't get too hungry. Ethan liked tossing the food over the side of the porch.

Then we made a plate of cookies for Santa and opened one gift- Ethan opened the awesome Jango Fett figure from Sadie, Paul opened... something (we can't remember!), Sadie opened a cute toy top that spins, and I opened a cookie press (yay!). Time for bed!!!

About 2:30 in the morning on Christmas Day, I woke up to use the bathroom and it was FREEZING!!!!! I went downstairs to check the thermostat and it was 63 degrees in the house. At first I was just annoyed because I thought Paul was just being stingy with the heat again, but then I realized it was set for 67. So something was wrong. I woke Paul up and then went to check on the kids, turning on the space heater in Sadie's room. Paul determined that the heat oil tank was bone dry. No oil = no heat. Crap. We called the emergency number of our fuel company and the guy on call said all they had available for deliveries was the 18-wheeler, which he didn't think would fit down our driveway. So he suggested we get some diesel, which would power the furnace for a day or two. Okaaaaaay... well, it was 3:30 in the morning on Christmas day so we weren't exactly psyched about doing that. So we snuggled under the comforter and put another blanket on Ethan's bed. Once Sadie woke up we brought the space heater downstairs and turned it on full blast in the living room (where the thermostat now said 61- BRRR!!), which actually made it pretty toasty. Still, we opened our presents in long underwear and heavy jackets/sweaters. Memorable, at least! (the delivery guy ended up coming yesterday around noon, so we got the heat back for the rest of the day- truly a Christmas miracle!!!)

Awesome snowflake pancake pan!

Sadie modeling some of her new duds:

Ethan got this toy guitar from Paul's parents- it is the funniest thing ever to watch him "rock out." The first thing he did when he opened it was put it behind his head and jam. Awesome. I hope White Snake has an opening soon.

Ethan is also developing his own fashion sense. Not sure that's a good thing...

We had a wonderful Christmas and hope you did too! To all our friends and family- we miss you, we love you, and thank you for an amazing year!!

It's Christmas Eve in Lebanon

We went to Boston yesterday, just for kicks. Through the Hanover public library we get discounted tickets to the Boston Children's Museum so we headed over there yesterday morning. When we got in the car to leave our house, it was -5 degrees. Wow, do we know how to pick vacation days!

Luckily Boston was a little warmer and we spent most of the day inside the museum. I think we spent almost six hours there. Ethan was in heaven. They had some awesome exhibits- a whole room with construction toys, a room of ramps for golf balls, water tables with boats, even a room for babies complete with a quiet nursing room and awesome diaper changing area. So nice! And we all got in for only $6! Sweet.

Sadie enjoyed trying to claw Paul's face off

Ethan LOVED this little "store" where you could buy groceries and ring them up. We may have to dig through the mountains of toys and find our stash of plastic food...

Sadie had fun crawling through the big tubes in the construction room

Ethan practicing his jackhammering skills

Outside the Children's Museum

After we were done at the museum we headed over to Boston's Little Italy for a cannoli (YUM!) and then to Faneuil Hall to look around the shops there. The Christmas tree above is in the common area between the buildings there. We then drove downtown to see the lights on Boston Common, which were pretty but ended up being a huge mistake as we got caught in horrible traffic trying to get out of town at 5:00. What is normally a two hour drive ended up being four and a half. Oh well. It was a really fun trip and the kids were both SO good.

Hope you all have a fun Christmas Eve, preparing for Santa's arrival! MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!

Grab Bag

I had some random pictures to unload from my memory card, so here you go! Grab bag!

Sadie in her church dress yesterday- does this dress look familiar to anyone in the King family??

Ethan in the adorable scarf my Aunt Diana sent him for Christmas- thank you Aunt Diana!! Look at those gorgeous blue eyes and smooth skin; how did we get so lucky to have such beautiful children??

Sadie in her scarf- holy moly, could there be a cuter thing in the universe?!

Sadie can pull herself to standing in her crib now, and almost every time I come to get her these days, this is how I find her

Okay, put down the stupid camera and pick me up NOW!!!!

It finally stopped snowing some time last night. This is the final "damage" after all the shoveling. Yikes.

The wicked icicles on the side of our house. Reminds me of A Christmas Story- I hope they don't break my glasses.

Snow mound in front of our house- it is now taller than Paul's car!

The neighbors have a line of trees somewhere under all that snow!

Paul has cleared a little pathway for Jabba to get to the backyard for doggy business purposes. Still, he's not quite sure what to think about all this...

The Great Bailout

It started snowing at about 1:30 yesterday afternoon, and it is STILL snowing. A skier's dream- fluffy, powdery, beautiful snow! I've never lived in a place that has gotten this much snow all at once. I haven't heard the total accumulation, but it's at least 12-14 inches. And we're supposed to get another 4-6 inches tonight and more tomorrow.

In an effort to keep up and not get completely snowed in, we've been shoveling periodically through the night/day, like bailing water out of a sinking ship. It is a losing battle. As soon as you've cleared off the windshield or driveway, it is covered in another quarter inch of snow. Our neighbor was out this morning, snowblowing the driveway; it was invisible again an hour later.

Here is our back porch early this morning, covered in snow- there are at least two or three more inches by now!

The other thing about shoveling all that snow are the mounds of snow created as you clear a path. It is daunting. And it will probably be there until some time in March...


So if any of you are pining for a white Christmas, come on up to New Hampshire!!

Happy birthday Paul!!!

Happy 29th birthday, Pablo! There's no better man than Paul Snow. You are my rock, my best friend, my husband, daddy to our beautiful kids, a great student and all-around wonderful person. I love you so much- hope you had a nice birthday!!

Birthday Celebrations

We decided to take advantage of some recent snowfall and Paul's newfound freedoom (finals ended on Tuesday) to celebrate Paul's birthday at the Hanover Country Club. We opened two Christmas gifts from the Snow Grandparents and hit the sledding hills.

Sadie got a great little wooden sled where she can just chill as evidenced below.

Here is a shot of Paul and Ethan preparing to sled down the big hill.

We also fit in some snowball fights and snow angels.

Of course, any time we rode down a hill, Ethan wanted to make it a race. Not sure why given that he didn't win them very often.

We're suppose to get 6 to 10 inches tomorrow so we're glad everyone enjoys playing in the snow. It will be here through at least mid-April.

Ethan playing in the snow

Ethan took advantage of our first significant snow and loved every minute of it. What a great guy.