Last year's snowy winter forced Myney and me to shovel our long sidewalk three times in 2 weeks. The memory of those three storms caused Myney to decide that her Christmas gift to Orlando and me would be a snowblower. We were happy to have it and eager to get to use it when a snow storm arrived the day after Christmas.
Sadly, that storm materialized only for areas north and east of DC and since then, we've had a relatively mild winter. That is until today, when a strong winter storm settled in over the region. It started as snow, then changed to rain, followed by sleet and ultimately heavy wet snow. The trees now look like they were dipped in frosting.
Snow is supposed to continue for another several hours. Anastasia's school and my work have already announce that they will open 2 hours late in the morning. And Orlando, who's home from work tomorrow, is looking forward to the inaugural snow blowing of our sidewalk.
Anastasia is just excited at the prospect of getting to use the sled she got for Christmas.
On our second annual visit to Texas, Annie and I had what we thought was an excellent itinerary, with a flight that was scheduled to get us in at about 8:30. Unfortunately, a storm blanketed the East Coast, and we were pretty seriously delayed leaving Baltimore. This caused us to miss our connection in Charlotte. Luckily, there was a flight to Austin that evening that we could get onto. That flight was also delayed because our flight crew wasn't there. Anastasia was a trooper, but by about 10 pm, she was finished. She crashed on the floor of the terminal as we waited.
Finally, at about 11:15, it was time to get on the plane. The airline employees were wonderful, and helped me carry our bags to the plane while I carried her. She did not wake up, even when I put her down and made her walk the aisle on the plane.
I woke her up when we landed and she did a great job getting her suitcase out of the terminal to where Chris and Rob were waiting for us. I'm very lucky to have a brother and brother-in-law willing to drive more than an hour in the middle of the night to pick us up. We finally got to the house at almost 2:00 am. We crashed.
Next morning, it was time for the kids to open up the presents Annie and I had brought with us. By far the most popular of the presents was the Razor scooter that we'd brought for Andrew. All of the kids took turns on it over the course of the week. We had excellent weather so there was a lot of playing outside. Anastasia was in seventh heaven.
The Windcrest holiday lights competition was a fun diversion for us one evening. Anastasia was pretty excited to see the holiday lights, especially the house with it's lights synchronized to music they broadcast over the radio.
The still photo doesn't do it justice. Here's a video of the same house that gives a better look.
We spent the rest of the week relaxing and enjoying the family time. The week ended with the annual New Year's Eve party at the Osborne's, where once again, I came away with a booby prize in the white elephant gift exchange. Guess I have to go back next year to give it back again.
That was the end of our week in Texas. On New Year's Day, we were up very early and hopped on the early flight home. I won't lie, after a week away, I was ready to sleep in my own bed again.
We altered the Christmas timeline a bit to accommodate Orlando's work schedule, so on what was just December 23rd to the rest of the world, we enjoyed our traditional Christmas Eve dinner of cheese and pate while presents got wrapped. I read Annie "The Night Before Christmas" and tucked her in so Orlando could work on assembling the big Santa presents (that she didn't technically ask for, but who's keeping track.)
Our Christmas morning (December 24) dawned with a very excited girl itching to go downstairs. She had promised to wake Orlando and me up first, but I'm pretty sure she peeked before coming to wake us. Once I was awake, Anastasia and I headed downstairs to see the Santa presents (which were all unwrapped), and start making our breakfast.
When the waffles were ready, Anastasia woke Orlando and we got down to the business of opening presents. Sadly, there were no cameras out for the present opening.
When the work was done, Anastasia dove right into playing with her new Barbie doll house and her new motorcycle. In the weeks that have followed, those remain her favorite toys. She's also taken a real liking to Connect 4, which makes Orlando very happy.
I've been pretty lazy in taking pictures of late, but they will come, I promise.
