Making Traditions

Winter and I ~ we don't get along all that well.

My most favorite part of it is the hot chocolate.

Okay, and the snow ~ I do love watching the snow fall as long as I don't have to drive in it.

What would be perfect is if it just snowed Christmas week.

Christmas would not be the same without snow, it's tradition.

The kids have it down ~ you want it to snow? So much so that you won't have school? Their bus driver let them in on the secret, flush an ice cube down the toilet, wear your pajama's inside out & backwards and sleep with a spoon upside down under your pillow. It really works! A couple weeks back they woke up and were thrilled they had no school! Cory was home as well and decided to go make some traditions of our own. Lucky for me I was the "Capturer

of Moments" therefore excused from wet socks and snow caked up my pant legs. They decided to play football and I think the kids' most favorite part was falling in the snow, or eating it. :o)

Cory told them they had to scare the players on the other team, make them frightened of how tough they were. Tressa loved making the scary faces ~ Gabe he's a softie. He'll never play poker and he'll probably smile at the players across from him!

Eli woke up from his nap and wanted to go outside with them so I bundled him up and let him loose. This was his first excursion in the snow, yes ~ yes I am a horrid mother. It was February and they were his first steps in snow. Better late than next year! He didn't know how to walk in it at first. Cory would grab his hand and gently tug him forward and his upper body moved but his legs were glued to the ground. So Cory had to carry him around for awhile. They made snow angels and he saw the other kids walking and I guess figured it out because he was walking in no time and throwing snow with everyone else.

I think his most favorite part was the sled ride. It was my mothers when she was little. I remember her and I dressed Tressa up for Christmas when she was almost one and took photographs in this sled. Seems like yesterday. *Sniff*. I'm usually good about taking photographs to have for memories but this time I was blessed to have Cory suggest we go have some fun in the snow because it surely wouldn't have been my idea and just by looking at the kids' faces in these photos ~ you know they're going to remember it forever. They'll be around the dinner table years from now and Gabe will say to Tressa, "Remember that year dad played football in the snow with us and then we made snow angels and had a snowball fight?" "Yeah", she'll say, "that was so much fun. Thanks dad for spending time with us." Eli won't remember so we'll have to get out the photo album and look through all the pictures...and have some hot chocolate.