Baby, It's Cold Outside!!

                        

I've decided that in spirit of the season, I'm taking on the challenge of naming each one of my December blog posts after Christmas songs.  So far, I've managed to pull off four out of six.  I didn't post on December 3rd because I woke up late and didn't write a blog that day.  

Yesterday, I enjoyed another snow day.  I spent the entire day sitting on the couch crocheting.  Well, I spent a good amount of time unraveling a ball of yarn and getting the knots out of it, but then I was able to get busy on a new infinity scarf.  I'm about two thirds of the way done with it, and I'm really liking the way it's coming out.  It's simple to make and looks good.  

Today, I'm going to finish up the scarf and then start working on some hats and headbands.  I still have the huge tub of yarn that was given to me a few years ago by my mother-in-law that needs to be made in to something.  It has never failed that each and every year I've ended up buying yarn in colors that I like and wanted, and the yarn I have has just sat or accumulated.  It's time to get rid of it all.  Or at least have a nice dent put in to it before I buy any more yarn.

I finally let the kids outside to play in the snow, yesterday afternoon, as you can see from the picture.  The snow was perfect for building a snowman and snowballs.  Peanut decided to have a go at building  a snowman.  She's only ever made one snowman before, in her entire life!  In her defense, I've always been such a worry wort about the kids spending too much time out in the snow or the snow that we've had over the years wasn't exactly conducive for snowman building.  

The only snowman she ever built was back in 2009, when we got almost two feet of snow.  Since then, our snow fall has been minimal each year.  Enough to get us a few snow days here and there, but not enough to really spend much time playing in it.

Here's Peanut having a go at building a snowman...

                               

She's starting off with a base by packing up the snow.

                               

She's starting to get a good mound going, while Jelly prepares snowballs to throw at her brother.

And...

                               

That's as far as she got.  She decided it was too much work packing all that snow, and that a snowball fight looked much more fun.

So, she scratched the snowman idea and started playing with her brother and sister.  I think it was a good way for them all to release some pent up aggression towards each other..HA!!

                               

Jelly had an absolute blast, as you can see from the expression on her face.  It didn't bother her a bit to be blasted with snowballs, and she did her fair share of getting her brother and sister with a few.  

Peanut and Jelly also made snow angels, but I didn't get pictures of them because that would require me stepping out in to the snow...and I wasn't having any of that.  I was taking pictures from the snow free car port, while still in my pajamas and slippers.  

They were outside for about an hour, which is much longer than I expected them to be out there.  Being that it was only 20 degrees while they were outside playing, I expected them to call it quits a lot faster than they did.  

Being the good Momma that I am, I had hot chocolate with marshmallows waiting for them once they got out of their wet clothes.  The only thing missing was a blazing fire in the fireplace for them to sit around while they drank it, but they settled for blankets in front of the TV instead.

Last night, the temperatures dropped in to the single digits.  I think Hubby told me that it got down to 1 degree last night.  Right now it's 11 degrees outside.  The high for today is 25.  The sun is shining, so I'm sure that some of the pretty snow will start to disappear, despite temps not getting about freezing.  What concerns me, though, is the refreezing that will take place over night.  Same thing for tomorrow.  If I have to drive to work Monday morning, I want to know that the roads aren't covered with ice from snow that melted during the day.

But, being that today is Saturday and I don't have to worry about driving to work until Monday, I'm just going to enjoy another day at home doing what I need to do.

My only concern at this point is finishing up my Christmas shopping.  There's a chance for snow again next weekend.  I was supposed to finish up my Christmas shopping this weekend, but then I put it off for next weekend.  If there's snow on the ground again next week, I'm going to be running out of time to make it happen.  I will end up having to face the crowds the weekend before Christmas to get it all finished, and hope that I can get everything that I need.

Last year, we had almost an entire week off before Christmas, so had I needed to I could have done some shopping then.  This year, our last day at school is December 20th.  Meaning that I have the weekend, and the Monday to get everything I need...and then it's too late.  I also have to think about when I'm going to get all the wrapping done.  I don't have wrapping paper, yet.  I could have got a nice chunk done this weekend... had I bought wrapping paper last weekend.  

Oh well, I know I'll get it taken care of.  Even if I have to go shopping in the evenings after work.  Nothing is going to stop me from making sure all of my kids have all of their presents waiting for them under the tree on Christmas morning.

But, I guess I should probably think about getting off of here and taking care of some stuff around the house before I settle in with my crocheting.  I have laundry to do, and some cleaning to take care of.  I also have to think about getting my plans all written up for this next week.  I'm going to be having a sub for a couple of days, and that stresses me out a little.  Preparing for a sub is always stressful.  But I do what I gotta do.

OK, stay warm everyone!!