So Long, 2016

Let's start with the reason for the season. The kids were in the Christmas pageant at church. Hadley reprised her role as an angel for the 3rd year in a row (just above Mary below). They had to memorize a lot of songs this year, and my favorite Hadley-ism besides "Hall-ay-moon-ya" was "In his cell sees day-o!".

Owen was a sheep this year. A demotion from Joseph and wise man from years past if you ask me, but he was totally happy and into his "baa"-ing on all fours. It was a very cute way to celebrate Christmas Eve.

Christmas morning came with new snowfall that continued all day! I was expecting to awake to a ruckus in the early hours, but we got out of bed to a quiet house at 7:20. After some kitchen noises, the kids came out a bit later.

They hadn't even noticed stockings yet! So, we did those while breakfast went in the oven. Then we had some yummy cinnamon rolls and bacon before continuing the excitement. This was my kind of holiday!

It was nice to scale back Christmas a bit this year. We did the 4 things rule: something you want, something you need, something to wear, something to read. Extended family and Santa added the cherries on top. 

We spent much of the week after O's birthday building Legos, and that didn't change at Christmas, except now H got to build some too.

After gifts, it was time to think about the turkey dinner. I think we got about 10 inches of fresh snow on top of the other snow we had from a week earlier. This is probably the most snow we've had since we've lived here (nearly 6 years!). First item on the agenda was to shovel out a spot for the smoker.

Once the turkey was going, we could start to dig our way out on the driveway,

our neighbors' driveway, 

and the porch.

 After all that work, the kids were eager to break in the new snow with their new sled!

Finally, smoked turkey time! Owen requested a leg and channeled his inner T-Rex. Yum!

With two weeks off of school, and snow everywhere, there has been much sledding, fort building, and cross-country skiing going on!

The parents had to help make a little snow fort in our front yard. With our powdery snow, it requires a lot of power and time packing snow in the block-maker. And an overnight freezing doesn't hurt either. I like this pic because the kids are running along the plowed snow wall (by the street) in the background, playing cops and robbers.

The mound from our driveway and the road plowing makes a nice slide for the kids. More snow and extreme sub-freezing temps are in the forecast, so we have to enjoy it now!

Happy holidays from Idaho and a Merry 2017 to you!