First Snow

Snow sure is pretty but we all know it makes everything harder, messier and more dangerous.  That is why  was very surprised that I, upon seeing a weak snowstorm circulating on the radar, was actually really excited.  Only the edge was coming toward our area and I waited all afternoon yesterday for it to start as my Weather Channel app kept pushing the start of the snowfall back on hour.  Snow in the month of December is lovely as long as it's not ruining Christmas travel plans. Once January comes I completely change my position and by March or April I loathe it...but...Christmas!  I love a white Christmas!

 

 It started accumulating last night so before I went to bed I dug out the kids' snow pants and the little blue (sorry, Tessa, you are not getting new girly snowboots in your size!) boots and other gear to prepare for the inevitable requests to go outside and play in the snow.  It snowed lightly all night and all morning so now we have around three inches.  It will probably be melting in the next few days so I sent them out while it was still there to enjoy.  

 

 

Mmmm...delicious.  I love eating fresh snow.  The first five minutes outside were spent shoveling snow into their mouths.  I should note that I was watching most of this from inside.  I had to step out to take the pictures but Milo gave me the perfect excuse to stay in and avoid any destined to fail snowman building attempts. 

 

Tessa was having a great time until she decided to take her mittens off for some reason. Then her hands got all wet along with the cuffs of her coat and she got mad about that but also didn't want to go inside.  I finally carried her in when her hands were turning red and looked freezing cold.  Ben stayed out for quite awhile. 

 

I had big plans to decorate the house for Christmas last night and it was going to be a perfect evening with the snow falling outside.  I should have known...between the kids all screaming and destroying things and Monday Night Football blaring in the background and Allan losing his mind over the tree it was actually pretty stressful.  I don't know why that cat loves artificial tree branches so much.

 

He chews on them!  It's so weird!  I let him go to town for awhile during the evening pajama routine before putting up the lights and he did tire of it eventually and hasn't bothered it today.  Let's just say that his stomach eventually rejected the plastic pine needles that he consumed.  He's such a treat.

 

Ben has been very excited about decorating.  I feel bad because it's been total chaos.  And I'm not even close to done yet and the house looks just horrible.  I started the Elf on the Shelf last night and I could barely find a clear spot to place it. 

 

 

I finally just put it on the table with the Santa photos from previous years that I found.  And, sure enough, no one really cared about it at all and the behavior around here is not any better.  Also, kids are not supposed to touch it and I caught Tessa swinging it around by the leg.  Sigh.   I know she s too young to really get it and maybe Ben is too. 

 

I have fallen behind on things I want to share the last few weeks.  Tessa was sick the weekend before Thanksgiving.  She had what I think was a sore throat for a few days.  She said she had "Owies in my mouth!" and said everything she ate was "spicy".  Then she developed a middle of the night fever, which conveniently was the night before I had arranged a babysitter and had plans to go to the NDSU football game.  She got better by Sunday but was still very disagreeable for a few days and between her and Milo's usual baby demands it has been hard to do much beyond the basic household functions.  So here are a few of those things that I've missed!

 

As I mentioned before, Tessa has moved to a twin bed.  Ben moved to one two years ago and had never put a bed skirt on to cover his box spring.  I think box springs are the trashiest looking things and daily I thought about how I hated the sight of it in his room.  Then Tessa's bed came along and two visible box springs were more than I could handle so I ordered some bed skirts from Amazon. 

Not only do they hide the box springs but they hide the clutter bombs that develop under the beds!  See?  Before...

 

After!

 

Tessa got a ruffled one and Ben's is streamlined with pleats at the corners.  After this picture was taken Tessa received a quilt from my grandma for her birthday.  I was going to photograph it but regardless of my efforts it is impossible to be left alone in that room to straighten up so I decided trying to fake a neat room was a waste of time.  Here is a picture of her with the quilt though!

 

 

Ben got a quilt too...She just threw that one together for fun with a big piece of race car fabric we found when we were cleaning out the old farmhouse.   

 

Now I am going to attempt to set up some buildings from my Christmas Village because Ben has been excited about it.  Getting these out of the crawlspace is not going to be fun or easy and will entail moving about 20 boxes of stored baby clothes out of the way.  Then I have to clear off several surfaces so I can set up the nativity scene and some other Christmas stuff and what I am going to do with the stuff that is already cluttering those surfaces remains to be seen...Oh, why can't I just wake up in a catalogue room that is perfectly decorated and free of toys for the whole month of December?