Christmas Preparations and "Real" Snow

We've had almost two weeks of snow. It started out with about an inch and a half...and we were so excited we managed to build a snowman even though there wasn't much snow. Then it REALLY snowed - we had about 18 inches or so when all was said and done. I didn't get any pictures of the maximum amount, but did get some a few days in...our trees were so beautiful coated in white! We got an ice layer which made the branches quite heavy, but we only lost one scrubby tree we didn't like very well anyway. Our massive Douglas Fir lost three large branches...thankfully, that was the only real damage our out-of-its-element foliage sustained. 

We've all been struggling with never-ending colds (I'm not being overly-dramatic, unfortunately. Taylor's had it for over seven weeks and still isn't completely over it! The rest of us are about four weeks behind). Because we'd break into coughing fits whenever our lungs hit cold air, we didn't enjoy the snow nearly as much as we would've liked. We went out for five or ten-minute spurts here and there. Mostly, though, we enjoyed the snow through the windows and did lots of inside Christmas activities.

Here are the boys with the gingerbread men and angels they made:

...and here are the boys helping Dad crack open pecans. I needed them for baklava and was reminded by Grandma Janet that they'd enjoyed cracking nuts with her this summer. What I view as a mundane chore ended up being a really fun time for the boys (and Dad was game enough, although he's definitely not ready to declare it a favorite pastime).

...And here's the obligatory baby pic - who could resist posting those giant dimples whenever possible?

The prelude to lots of snow: Aric's turn with the shovel. After we had a lot of snow, the kids didn't want to shovel anymore for some reason. I wonder why????

Here's our little snow guy. The boys were ready to be done rolling him when he was about a foot high, but I insisted that we "finish the job!" I came outside to help during Ascha's naptime and I figured I'd better make sure he was complete before I went back in the house, or he'd never get done. (Can you tell I'm projecting my procrastinator's nature onto my kids? Poor guys...they probably would have had more fun making him slowly over a longer period of time, but at least the boys were still smiling after he was finished!)

Here he is a few days into the snow.  He looks rather shocked, eh? :-) 

Beautiful trees: