Merry Christmas!

No, this is not our Christmas letter.
Yes, you will still get some kind of poetic concoction in the mail.
No, I am not pregnant. Even though that is the reason for the only other 2 times we have sent Christmas cards late.
Yes, I am sure.

But we do hope you all have a wonderful Christmas! May God bless you and your families in the new year!

Boy in a Blizzard

We had our first blizzard of the season a few weeks ago. The snow started falling in the afternoon and was supposed to be heaviest overnight, followed by strong winds and below freezing temps for a day or two. I decided that if we were going to enjoy the white stuff, we needed to get out there early. Especially because the forecast called for the snow to come up to Eli's chest by the time it was all said and done. So after a good nap, we all went outside to get a head start on the shoveling and enjoy the nice temps while we had them. Eli had never had all his snow gear on all at once so he was quite reminiscent of the boy in A Christmas Story.


He teetered between the edge of the garage and the edge of the snow for quite a while, not sure what to make of it all. I wasn't sure his feet were all the way in his boots so I don't think he could walk very well.

But he was happy to watch his sister enjoy the fun.

He eventually made his way out in it. I had already shoveled about 4 inches off of this part and you can see how fast it had filled up again.
Finally he gave it a go and decided to head for the drifts like his sister. With weeble-like quickness he made his way to the end of the driveway, only to be carried back to the top over and over. Finally it was too dark and cold to stay out any longer, so we reluctantly headed in and enjoyed the rest of the storm from our living room window.

Now any time Myka gets ready to go out and play, he goes to the laundry room and finds his snowpants. It seems his time is coming as another big storm is on the horizon and he's guaranteed some time outside when there is enough snow to shovel. (And yes, I mean me. I don't make the kids do the shoveling. Well, most of the time, I don't...)

Santa Claus is repelling into town

Downtown Cedar Falls is a happening place.

They have all sorts of events throughout the year that draw people downtown to mingle and shop and celebrate the effort that has been put into making it a fun place to be. We decided to head out as a family the Friday after Thanksgiving for some "Holiday Hoopla". We weren't quite sure what to expect but I had heard there would be tree lighting and music that night. We bundled up and made three mugs of hot chocolate to go and had a fantastic evening. There was live music and some kind of Santa's Village that we couldn't really get to because of the crowds. We bumped into some friends and enjoyed the carols and atmosphere together. Myka and her friend Kate (you may recognize the hat...) had a great time dancing around and being silly together.

As the music was nearing an end the emcee kept saying a special visitor would be "dropping in" soon. We were looking for wires or a fake chimney for Santa to fall out of but couldn't find any hints as to how he was going to show himself to the crowd other than to appear at the window of the second floor dance club shaking his booty with an egg nog in hand. (I was really hoping for that as I had such an awesome picture in my mind already, but I guess that might have scared the children a little bit...)

Finally the music ended and our host told us to look up at the building behind us.
And here is what we saw.

It was the first time I was truly scared of a live "stunt" in the way that if somebody we have never heard of or seen before would slip off a rope and fall off a building we would be concerned, and even sad, but would be able to move on. The thought of it being Santa, however... Well, I just don't even want to go there.

The good news is he made it down, um, safely, we think. There was some kind of board that fell when he was about two-thirds of the way down, but we think it missed him. He also didn't have the softest landing, but he waved to the crowd after and all were satisfied that Santa was finally here!

Somehow everyone knew that they were supposed to head to the end of main street for the big Christmas tree lighting, so the crowd started heading north but we hung out for a minute to finish up with our friends because we were planning to head home and get the littlest one warmed up. The girls got tired of our talking and took a seat on the curb to rest for a minute.

It was a cute little moment between them and I didn't want to miss it so I got set to snap one more picture just to be sure. At the exact moment I hit the button, fireworks went off about two blocks behind us. I'm sure the blurriness is due to me jumping at the sound and Myka looks as if she is just about to ask what that was, but Kate's reaction is my favorite. Her eyes were about twice the size they usually are.
Since the sound was coming from near where our car was parked anyway, we went around the building and watched the display before heading home. It was quite a fun way to start the Christmas season.

And a week later, as we were watching some Christmas special where Myka was quite concerned as she saw Santa fall down a chimney and land with a hard thump, we were able to remind her that he really doesn't fall like that.

He lowers himself down with a rope and a harness and tries to avoid the debris from the roof falling in after him.