Christmas Recap Before I Forget

Here we are on the other side of the big day.  Christmas.  As the days have passed it is starting to seem like so long ago.  I saw this funny illustration on FB from a funny blogger I follow and it is so true. 



I really don't know what day of the week it is.  And I really did eat WAYYYYY to much cheese in all its forms over Christmas.  It was a nice few days though.  We left home the 22nd and returned the 27th, which was one day later than originally planned because...blizzard!  There was a Christmas blizzard this year.  It started raging on the 25th when we were at my parent's farm and a whole lot of people ended up sleeping overnight.  19 people to be exact.  Yeah, you read that correctly.  Fortunately, no one has any boundaries.  For real.  My sister and cousins and I sure don't have any, my mom and her sisters don't have any and Justin and my sister's husband and my cousin's husband all went to college together and lived in the same fraternity house and, come to think of it, my dad and my uncle also did so...

So, here are few pictures.  I didn't take many because the kids were often distracted by other things or I was distracted by other things.  Sometimes, I tried to catch a nice photo opportunity and as soon as I pointed the camera the main subject ran away, like the picture below.

I noticed Milo, gazing up in awe at the tree.  It was the perfect photo to show off on social media...too bad I wasn't quick enough. 

On the 23rd, it was the calm before the storm and the weather was really warm (I'm referring to wintertime warm here...35 degrees) so the kids went sledding.  Justin pulled them around in a little sled train.  Me and Milo even went for a ride and there is a picture but it is on someone's phone so I have to hunt it down.  Then they went downhill sledding and I was so proud.  They both trudged up the hill several times without a whine or a complaint. 

Here is Milo with one of his gifts from his cousins. 

Here is Tessa visiting with Santa on Christmas Eve.  This picture is actually nicer than our mall Santa picture...this very picture. 

Showing Dad what she got.

Here is Milo on Christmas morning wearing his two small Christmas pajamas.  It's still a cute picture though.  There was no fantasy perfect Christmas morning picture.  The other kids were...occupied...at this time...in my parents' basement with their toys.  Ben was already sitting at the card table putting together the Lego police semi we got him. 

While we were in Eastern ND experiencing some snow but mostly treacherous icy roads and wind our own city three hours away was getting buried in a foot of snow, which has already happened twice in the last month.  Oooh boy...fortunately the snow removal people had already come when we arrived home on the 27th.  They left a three foot wall of snow along the side of the street and an actual glacier sized pile of snow on the vacant lot at the end of the cul de sac.  From the street below it actually looks like an avalanche could tumble down at any time. 

Ben is testing out his new kids snow shovel here!  Fortunately, the front of our house doesn't accumulate drifts like the people across from us but the backyard...well...

This is the backyard.  Under that window high drift is our grill.  It's in there somewhere! It is hard to believe that six weeks ago we were hanging out back there in t-shirts, telling ourselves we better get the toys and patio furniture inside one of these days since it was November already!   I feel bad for the meter reader who has to come next time. Snow is piled about three feet high against the door on our deck as well.  I guess we won't be opening the patio door until March (if we're lucky)!  I prefer to send the kids to play in the snow out there but there is just too much.  They could get lost back there.

It is bad around here.  I ventured out around town yesterday and resumed my usual YMCA routine and we went to the mall last night and there are streets all over town that are not plowed yet and even the main streets have had a very hasty job done (I am NOT bashing the city workers.  I know they are doing their best).  You never know when your usual turning lane or passing lane will be gone, covered in snowbanks.  The picture below was taken last night when we were downtown and pulling out of a carwash at a gas station.  Pictures don't do it justice...

Many sidewalks are almost like tunnels! 

So, overall, it was, as Clark Griswold says, "a good, old-fashioned family Christmas"!  We went to church on Christmas Eve and the church had a Mary and Joseph in costume with a real baby come out during the kid's message.  The kids got to frolic in the snow with their cousins.  There were piles of gifts endless types of cheese for me!  We saw a lot of family members.  Although many family members have expanded to having their own family gatherings and it is not possible to fit in gatherings with everyone, I still get to have Christmas with some of my cousins at the age of 33 and it is great to see our kids playing together.  I think everyone, even if it has been years or decades since they had a Christmas like those they remember in their childhood, still returns to those days in their memories on Christmas like the locally famous Marilyn Haggerty column where Marilyn zones out from the chaos of her kids and grandkids and returns to the farmhouse where she grew up and sees her parents and siblings around her.