We usually spend Christmas here in town, but this year, my sister Christi was due with her first baby on December 19th, right before Christmas. So close to Christmas in fact, that it would be flat out silly if we were to come up to meet baby Elsie and not stay for Christmas this year. So that's exactly what we planned. To head up to Oregon one day before Christi's due date, stay through Christmas and then return the day after to spend the second part of Christmas with family back at home. We figured leaving close to Christi's due date wouldn't really be an issue since most of the women in our family have had late babies and we assumed Christi would likely too. We actually all thought she would have a late baby so strongly that we had all started to pray that her baby wouldn't be born on Christmas day itself! Well, what's that they say about even the best laid plans? Yeeeeaaaah. God must sometimes laugh at us and all our know-it-all-planning, because come December 7th, a full two weeks early, I got a very excited phone call from my mom telling me that Christi was in labor!
Well, try as we may have to stay in town and leave according to our original plan (ok, we didn't try that hard), that brand new, snuggly baby was just calling to the Auntie in me and Jenn! So, we both crammed (and I do mean crammed!) through a few top, top, secret, secret projects, left the hubbies to work their jobs and left for Oregon a mere five days after my mom's initial phone call....three weeks ahead of Christmas! (We really held out, didn't we?). Aside from the obvious perk of extra time with family, a really fun perk to leaving early was enjoying the snow! Baby Elsie was born in the middle of a snowstorm that dumped much more than the dusting of snow my parents' house typically gets. Much more, almost two feet of it to be exact! This made the drive up incredibly slow, but our first snow filled week there so much fun!
Auntie Jenn, straight in from the car, meeting baby Elsie for the first time. Gotta make that drive worth it, right?
We didn't see much of the snow the night we drove in, since it was dark. However, we woke up to a beautiful winter wonderland!
My parents' driveway
The barn
The backyard
And to think, in the summertime, this deck looks so inviting!
The orchard
First thing the boys did the morning after we had arrived was to bolt outside to play in the snow. Lala gleefully joined in and between her and Drew, Snowman Number One was created.
I liked that Drew gave him ears. (What? You can't tell that the lump on the right side of his head is an ear??). He started out with two ears, but by the time I had my camera out, one ear had fallen off.
After they build a snowman it was off to the river to throw snowballs and see how frozen over everything was.
Turns out it was all pretty frozen.
It was cold enough that even the first few feet of the river against the bank had frozen solid!
Not to be outdone by my Mom, my Dad had the day off a few days later and joined the boys in building another snowman from the snow that had piled up on the deck.
I don't know if it was cheating, or genius, but they used shovels to scoop snow into piles and then form the snowballs for the body. So much faster!
They also used spray paint to decorate (hello, excited boys!)...
...and power tools to accessorize. (Can you say that when referencing a manly man's snowman, "accessorize"?). Drill hole...
...insert carrot nose....
...and stick arms!
When she was all said and done, we had Snowman Number Two.
Also known as "Beatrice". And let me tell you, Beatrice was a looker. Mmmmm hmmm.
And of course, when a bunch of boys build a snowman, its much more fun to pretend to knock her down than it is to just say cheese and stand by your work :)
The snow didn't stay long. By the end of our first week there, a storm came in, rained on top of the snow and within three days it had all melted away. Such fun while it lasted though!
