Christmas prep & the snowstorm of '09

We didn't get our decorations up on Thanksgiving weekend as we usually do. It was just really busy, I couldn't find the time to haul all of the stuff down until early December. We had it up and decorated pretty easily, especially with all of the help we received.


There were lots of decorations about the 3.5 ft mark and below on the tree.

Daddy helped reach up to the tippy top of the 9' tree.

Due to our very busy weekends in December we did not have a full day to devote to Christmas cookie baking like we have in the past. So, not to let a tradition pass, we scheduled one in between other appointments. Happily Mommom and Poppop were able to come down and join us.

We baked for a good 5 hours, there was lots of mixing and baking and mixing some more. We made lemon and almond spritz cookies as well as chocolate chip cookies. We also had enough ingredients to make chocolate dipped pretzels, peppermint bark and hungarian kiflis, unfortunately we ran out of time! Maddie stayed engaged a good amount of time and helped with just about every aspect of the baking.

That includes sneaking samples to the official taste testers - Daddy and Poppop.

I'm very glad we found the time to do it. It's a tradition that I've done with my mom and grandmom - and I'm glad that we're continuing it for Madeline. She had a blast and although it was a very long day (because as soon as this was done we were off to a birthday party) so did I =)

We were also hit with the great snowstorm of '09! In the end we got close to 2 ft of snow. Here is Madeline staring out longingly to the snowdrifts wanting to romp about.

She got bundled up with multiple layers - which after the first jaunt outside to play - we found was key to keeping warm longer. Poor Madeline had outgrown her snow boots so all she had was her froggy boots! Bad Mommy!

We ended up shoveling the snow in our driveway and cul de sac 4 times. Every couple of hours we'd go out (Ron did the majority of the shoveling) and shovel the snow out of the way. The first time, it was snowing so hard, that by the time we got to the end of the driveway, there was already an inch back where we had started on the sidewalk! I'm just very glad that we didn't wait until it was all over to start.


Maddie had fun throwing snow clumps at us and climbing on the big piles we made at the sides of the driveway. They were taller than she was! She did get cold quickly and we'd return inside to warm up before heading back out.