Evan's New Car

One of Evan's Christmas gifts was a Cozy Coupe. It's a total hit! The moment we took it out of the box, Evan jumped in - well before the wheels or door was on. He then proceeded to "help" daddy put it together, anxiously awaiting his first opportunity for a ride. Now that it's all ready, he's got a parking space all picked out (dining room corner) and considers the hall his personal freeway. He's getting out of the car pretty much only to eat and sleep, and is sharing his new space with all his favorite toys. He can't wait for all this snow to melt so he can drive it up and down the driveway! Soon he'll be motoring right along - look out, Charlottesville!

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas! We've had a great day.

We went to church last night - a family service at 4 complete with puppets, kid-friendly instruments, glow-sticks (instead of candles) and animal noises to tell the story of Baby Jesus. Evan thought church should be like this every week! Lasagna was ready when we got home, and we left cookies out for Santa.

True to his word, Santa brought Evan just what he was wishing for - a basketball and a football! He also brought a chair for the living room - it's just Evan's size, and how did he know the right colors to match the rest of the furniture? Other gifts came too and were a huge hit - books recorded with Grandparents' voices, a play cell phone, a big red car, and much, much more! Evan was more than pooped by the 10am nap, but coming down after the nap was like Christmas again - he had forgotten all the new things that had arrived.

Thanks, everyone, for making this a wonderful Christmas. We hope you had a beautiful holiday too!

Visiting Santa

It's never too late for Santa to work his magic, so we went for a visit this morning. The line at the mall wasn't too long, and Evan was all dressed up. He was a complete champ! (The 18month old behind us wasn't nearly so brave when his turn came.) Evan sat politely for the photo op, told Santa what he was hoping for (basket- and footballs), and left with a wave. He must have known that nice little boys get rewarded on Christmas morning!

Christmas Message from Santa

Evan got a very special Christmas message from Santa. Watch it here.

The Blizzard of '09: Day 3

8:30am: Brave Mike's going to trying to go to work. Cross your fingers!
9:15: I see a snowplow coming down my street! While that's good for the street, it's not good for Mike - he's in the street - right in the path of the plow!
9:16: Mike starts to back up - down a one lane trough of snow. Careful!
9:19: Um, why isn't the plow moving?
9:21: Um, why isn't Mike moving?
9:30: The plow driver is now out and digging out the plow with a shovel. That's not good.
9:32: Mike's digging the auto out with a shovel. Crystal comes out to help.
10:30: The plow is backing away, slowly, as if in fear of our poor little street. Really not good.
10:35: Crystal & Mike are backing the auto back into the driveway.
10:35: The plow left a 3ft wall of snow at the end of our road. Gee, thanks.
10:50: Mike and the neighbors are trying to dig just two tire tracks worth of snow out of the pile so we can get our autos out.
11:20: Free! Mike's free! ...until the plow comes back.

The Blizzard of 09: Day 2 continued

The snow started falling at 4pm on Friday... and didn't stop until near midnight on Saturday. The current estimate? 27 whopping inches. That's more than this Wisconsinite can ever remember seeing in one storm! Quite impressive.

But it's fun to play in the snow! Ernie finally ventured out of the path, but quickly returned to the safety of the tromped-down snow.

The Blizzard of 09: Day 2

Ernie and Evan had a good time, until Ernie knocked Evan over, face first. Then it wasn't so much fun. But we discovered that snow is fun to throw, and to eat. This winter wonderland thing isn't bad! (Though it's sad that mommy is missing some ingredients for cookies...)

The Blizzard of 09: Day 1

The weathermen were right - snow was on the way. Reports started with 5 inches, and quickly changed to 12, then 18. We're now 32 hours into the storm, and have a total of 17 inches outside - and the snow is still falling!

Ernie flat out refused to go outside until Mike had cleared a substantial path this morning. (Unfortunately you can't see that path any more!) Smart dog, because it was cold, and probably more so on his naked belly. Once he had a path though, he was raring to go. He wanted so badly to run through the whole snowy yard, but since the snow was up to his ears, couldn't bring himself to do it. Case in point - about 3/4 of the way through this video, see Ernie burying his head in the snow as if to test it's firmness.

Evan, on the other hand, couldn't wait to get outside this morning. We had some snow about a week ago so this wasn't his first, but it's still a new sensation. What fun! He walked up and down the path, and patted and pushed at the mountain of snow. (I think he's finally realized the value of mittens!) We narrowly missed getting dumped on by a load of snow falling off the roof, thanks to some fancy footwork. We'll see what tomorrow brings - maybe daddy will help us with a snowman or snow angel... if we can open the door!

Ball?

Hey - there's a tree in the living room! Evan woke up this morning to discover our Christmas tree. (There are only 1/5 of the ornaments on it, and most of those ornaments are on the top 1/3 of the tree - we're not taking any chances!) He was curious about all the decorations and lights, but the "balls" on the tree were what caught his eye the most. I wonder how long they'll last...

Happy Holidays, everyone!

SNOW!

It's snowing in VA! Big, fat flakes of heavy, wet, white snow. Evan was very interested in the snow, and wanted to stay out and play for hours. We only ended up with a few small inches, but it's definitely snow, which is not a typical sight in VA.