Christmas Adventures

We had our annual Christmas party and white elephant yankee swap.  As usual, the gifts ranged from random junk, return items from previous years, and some new gems (like a shirt with Aaron's face on it and a giant jar of pickles).

A couple of the gifts included toilet paper, so the kids played hot potato and also made Micah into a mummy.

And since McKims were hosting this year, we made the kids recreate this picture from the McKim's house seven years ago.

2015

2022

Scott took Sadie to the kennel before the party, as we were planning to leave for New Hampshire the next day.  However, a major winter storm forced us to change our plans.  We stayed in Ohio for an extra day.  Miraculously, our power stayed on all day! We opened our Gurley presents and enjoyed a quiet day at home.

That is a pillow shaped like a loaf of bread.  Micah really loves bread.

Saturday morning we got up early to try to make it to New Hampshire in one day.  It was still brutally cold with fierce winds, but Scott was confident that if we could just make it a few hours southeast, we would be through the worst of it.  He was right! Our first hour of driving was very slow on snow-covered roads. 

 

But by taking a longer route on the PA turnpike, we immediately had the benefit of clear roads.

We still had to contend with a salt-covered windshield and frozen washer fluid. (We saw cars pulled over to the side of the road to clean their windshields every couple of minutes.) Thankfully the rest stop was well-stocked in washer fluid, and we made it work!

washer fluid squirt bottle

usually my van is black...

We were very thankful to arrive safely on Christmas eve and be able to enjoy Christmas morning together.

Lucy (15), Micah (14), Nat (12), Hannah (12), Matthew (9)

Poppa and Micah watching Micah's current favorite show "Psych"

Eric and I were both a little under the weather on Monday, so we waited until Tuesday to go skiing.  Micah and Hannah were very happy to get the chance to ski on a real mountain and did a great job keeping up with the Chamberlins.

Matthew and I primarily stuck to the bunny hill.  He is great at turning (he usually keeps his skis parallel!), but hasn't been able to master using a snowplow to slow himself down.  We did one run on a bigger hill (with several wipeouts), then took a break for lunch.  After lunch, Aunt Meredith and Natalie came to help Matthew, and it made a huge difference!  His control was so much better that we decided to give the bigger hill another try.

Matthew on the bunny hill with Mer and Nat

All three of us were trailing behind him, and he was doing amazing with no falls!  The trail had several turns towards the bottom, so he was out of our sight for a second.  We happened to reach the bottom just as Eric, Micah, Lucy, and Hannah were coming down from another slope.  I stopped to say hi to them before I realized that I couldn't see Matthew. 

 I am generally very calm in emergencies, but this time I immediately felt panicked. Very quickly, Meredith got back on the chair lift to go back to the trail, I called Scott in the lodge to make sure Matthew hadn't gone in to find him, and Eric checked the lines of the nearby slopes.  When I saw a ski patrol snowmobile heading up the hill we had been on, I took off my skis and started up the hill behind them.  Thankfully, I hadn't gone very far before a woman came skiing towards me saying "Are you Deb?  He's ok." She assured me that he was walking, talking, and calm.  Apparently, he had fallen and slid under a fence in the seconds that he was out of our sight, and we must have gone right past him.  He was able to climb back himself.  A couple of girls saw him and grabbed an adult to help him get his skis.  He had a good scare and a couple of bruises, but was otherwise completely fine.

After that escapade, Matthew wisely chose not to put on ice skates with Hannah and Natalie the next day.  (I mean, he still slid all around the ice playing and tripped and got a bloody lip walking back to the house - but at least there were no sharp blades involved.)

I watched from the house.  It's a lot warmer in there. 

We drove about 4.5 hours on Wednesday, stayed at a hotel, then drove the rest of the way home on Thursday.  Sadly, due to illness we had to cancel our New Year's Eve plans tonight, but we are happy to be safe at home.

A Little More Pre-Christmas

Here are a few more blurry indoor soccer pictures.  I haven't gone to any of Micah's games this season (because those high school boys are quite intense and aggressive which makes me nervous, and because lots of his games are after my bedtime), so I don't have any pictures of him.

This year we had the same dilemma that we had five years ago - two kiddos with Christmas concerts on the same night and time at different locations.  When it happened five years ago, one of my friends commented, "Well, I guess after tonight we'll know which kid is your favorite."  And I replied, "Yeah, the one that doesn't have a Christmas concert this year." 😄

2017

2022

Thankfully, Matthew had an afternoon performance that I could attend.  Scott and Micah watched him in the evening while I went to Hannah's.

back middle

I'm really impressed with Hannah's perseverance with the flute.  She struggled a little bit to get started this summer, and I think she was intimidated joining a band where most of the kids had already played the year before.  But she kept working and now plays with confidence!

Christmas Prep

 Scott took charge of outdoor decorations this year (with help from kids).  It looks great!

Scott also led Matthew's Fantastic Friday group one week.  We were able to go to the rec center for indoor soccer.

Hannah and I went to see Gwen and Ainsley in the "Nutty Nutcracker".  It's a performance they only do once every 5 years that adds a lot of silliness and random characters to the traditional Nutcracker story.  It was a lot of fun!

We have been loving watching all the World Cup soccer.  

Scott making pancakes for the USA game

To make it more interesting, we drew names to divide up all the countries.  Each of us had six countries on our "team" to root for. A team received three points for a win and one for a tie.  I have no idea what the standings are now, but I'm pretty sure I lost. 

All three kids are playing indoor soccer.  Micah and Hannah's teams are pretty casual.  They don't practice; they just play a game on the weekend.  Micah scored a goal in his last game!  Hannah has missed most of her games due to travel and illness, but hopefully she'll be able to play more in the next session.  Matthew's team actually practices, and he's working hard to build his skills back up after missing the fall season for football.  We couldn't be happier with his coach and team.

Micah and Hannah competed at Matthew's last game to get an "epic picture".  This was the best I saw. 

Poor Sadie got spayed last week and has to wear the "cone of shame" while her incision heals.  She's doing well and should be back to normal in a couple more days.

Elle and Fae came over one afternoon to make gingerbread houses. We had a fun, messy time!

I happened to be at Walmart as they were trying to clear out the rest of their pre-cut trees.  We had been planning to just use our fake tree, but a live one for $5 seemed like a no-brainer!