More presents and snow

Before the worst of Barforama Week at the Himstedts hit, we had fun playing with new toys. Tuesday after getting home from Texas Monday night was like Christmas morning all over again, since the last time they had seen most of the toys was after they opened them in the hospital conference room.

Shannon enjoyed building vehicles of all shapes and sizes.

Shannon and Daddy built this.

Somewhere at my folks' house there's a picture of me around this age making this exact face while coloring Easter eggs.

Done!

Then there was the rest of the week, which much to your relief I will refrain from discussing again.

Mom and Dad helped us bring in the new year with a few more gifts, some from them, some from great aunts and uncles and great grandparents we missed seeing over the holidays.

Another bow! Yes!

Grandad and Amelia, exhausted from all the unwrapping.

I love presents!

A kid that gets actually gets excited about clothes for Christmas.

Ho, ho, ho, Merry Trashmas!

Opening presents was a fun way to bring in the new year. After putting the kids to bed we chatted until midnight, watched the Times Square ball drop on the internet, thanked the Lord we weren't there in person, and went to bed.

This gift was from Aunt Reda and Uncle Doug to Avery. A giant angry/confused/dismayed/upset/goofy bowling set! Incidently these are some of the same faces I make when I go bowling.

Grrrr....

James got us some technology updates for Christmas, including an internet ready Blueray  DVD player. We can now get Netflix on demand.

He also replaced my car stereo. The factory CD player quit working about three years ago after eating a CD. "Error," it said. Duh, it ate my CD.  The radio part still worked fine though, so we never bothered replacing it.

It was a bit disconcerting to see my car like this. He saved enough money by buying it and installing it himself to make it worth the hassle.

Or so he thought until hour two, or was it four? Here he is on the phone with his personal tech support, Curtis D. One trip to Best Buy for a wiring harness later it was working. Except for a loud popping noise when it comes on (James says it needs another part of some kind- at least he knows what it is!), and no ability to turn the sound all to the front speakers it's perfect. I'm proud of my man for tackling the unknown yet again and learning something new. You know, he really is quite useful. He picked a nice stereo too, now I can plug the iPod directly into my stereo and can even charge my phone with it.

Changing gears, here's one of those things that can happen when it gets quiet in the house and you notice you've heard nothing from the two year old for awhile.

A pedicure with Amelia's nail polish!

Yes, I did it myself. Don't be jealous of my skill. (Or my 80's leotard.) And don't hate me because I'm beautiful.

Nicely done. Unbelievably she didn't spill a drop or get it anywhere but on her toes.

It reminds me of another young lady at the age of three...

If you value your make up at all and you have a preschool age princess in your home, lock it up! (The make up, that is....)

 Gimme a smooch!

The next week (January 10th) we had snow. There had already been one snow in Georgia, but it was while we were gone to Texas. North Georgia got the first white Christmas anyone could remember. This one was fun, it lasted all week because it stayed cold. We actually still had snow where it had been piled up off the roads  for THREE weeks. Unheard of.

Fun stuff!

The road into camp.

James clearing off the windshield of his truck. For Georgia it was pretty substantial.

The night before, James brought both of our vehicles down the hill and parked them on the camp road. His pointed out towards the highway, mine towards the barn. After taking care of horses in the snow for a week it gave me a new appreciation for folks who own livestock in places where it snows all the time.

The Lodge.

By the lake.

We drove out to the barn the first morning to take care of the horses and toodled around camp. Then we came home for some sledding...sort of. We had no sleds. Wal-Mart and the local hardware stores sold out in a matter of hours when everybody started to take the threat of snow seriously.

So we improvised with lids off of 55 gallon Rubbermaid trashcans.

The trajectory and direction of a round sled isn't always predictable.

Once we wore a path down the driveway and got it packed we could zoom pretty good. But we also had a secret weapon.

WD-40, baby.

Sometimes you get dumped off. Like every other run.

Amelia, Shannon, James, and I had a blast. The younger two didn't want to slide, they wanted to go inside and warm up and watch a movie. That suited me since they're higher maintenance with this kind of stuff, and so we slid and busted our rears in peace.

We tried using the barn shovel. Don't worry, it's the one we use for clean shavings, not for shoveling poop. At least not all the time. We didn't have too much success with it, however.

A nicely staged wreck, complete with a broken hip and a snowy hat. The shovel always quit on you too slow for it to actually be called a wreck. We recommend trashcan lids and WD-40 any day.

Old timers around here say if snow is on the ground more than three days you can expect another snow to come. It came last night...but only stayed for about two hours after the sun came up today. Does that negate it's former obligation? As much fun as it is to play in the snow, I'm ready for some sunshine and swimming. Two weekends ago it got up to 64 and I felt like a new person after soaking up some warm rays. Riding horses two days in a row didn't hurt either. I had to nix the pleas to play in the hose, though they begged and begged.

That's all for this post, since the rest of the photos are still on the camera.

Coming soon, kind of: The snowman/woman we built after the snow got melty enough, delayed Christmas celebration with family, a birthday, and more...I think. I can't remember. Until next time...