Cold x Two!

My house has been infected be a nasty cold... it is working its way through all of us and we are just hoping to clear it mostly away before we leave on Monday.

Also the cold weather has returned with a vengeance. Maria has been anxiously wanting to see a blizzard... now she has! We had a horrid north wind along with snow and temperatures around -22 not counting the wind chill... all I can say is bbbrrrr!

We are really looking forward to leaving on Monday for our trip to Mexico... we just have to get through the sickness and a very busy weekend first!

Where for Art Thou... Mexico???

I am soooo ready to go to Mexico. I think I have a mild case of Seasonally Affected Disorder, or whatever SAD is. We had a few bright blue days and I felt so recharged and ready to go outside, but it has been snowing again for the last few days (week?) and I am tired of it... Although it is starting to warm up, a bit. The damn weatherman keeps promising temperatures right around zero (which would be great!) but we are still around -17 to -20... sigh.

On a positive note, we got some work done in the house, since we were stuck inside. I think we have officially unpacked more boxes in this house than we did in the entire time we were in Saltair!

Mike did a great job on cutting the mats to fit

Mike and I attacked a room that had been a stash place for "stuff". The room is now empty, completely. In fact it echoes like crazy and the kids love to play tag in there, which is great since they can't really run around outside. This room was used as a billiards room by the previous owners of our house - for us it is known as the "Wrestling Room". Although exercise room might be more apt. We are getting a treadmill so we can get our blood moving from its current frozen state. I had plans of getting into cross-country skiing, but apparently I am too wimpy to brave the cold. Also a place for the kids to run wild and bounce on the bouncy castle thing... We have a big house, so we are taking advantage with a completely frivolous space. I just need to do something about that echo... any suggestions?

I Need to Thaw

That isn't snow on the trees... it is frost/ice

Happy New Year! We have had a very nice winter holiday and thoroughly enjoyed some time off, but man... this cold snap has got to break. It has been between -25 to -40 for weeks now it seems. I know that the weather has been nasty everywhere, but I am just about frozen right through.

The view out Maria's bedroom window!

Even the people who were born here are complaining about it, so it isn't just me! In all seriousness though... it is too cold to go outside so we are probably suffering from a bad case of "cabin fever". I think the cure is two weeks in Mexico...

Check out Hubby' eyelash extensions! Again that isn't snow on him, it is ice from shoveling the driveway!

It's a Marshmallow World In the Winter...

But it is too cold to go outside and take a picture... no really it is, my camera doesn't like to take pictures outside, it freezes (literally) up! Yesterday my van was showing temperatures around -34! It was so cold that when I started to drive, my tires were frozen in the shape they sat at all night and it took a little bit for them to "round up" again and stop thumping.... I thought I had a flat, but it was just a square!

Michael's union put on a Christmas party at the gymnastics club. The kids had a blast, they got to do gymnastics, have pizza and goodies, sit on Santa's knee AND get a present from the big guy too!

We have been having fun though. It is hard to not get into the Christmas spirit when you are surrounded by winter everywhere you go - so we have been busy with Christmas parties, skating parties, Christmas concerts and all other Christmas preparations! We had a nice evening the other day... Maria's school had their winter concert and Maria did a great job and we enjoyed watching the show. Upon arriving home we had the pleasant surprise of finding three deer in our front yard, eating what is left of our trees and garden (and maybe a few veggies that found their way into the garden after we had been seeing the deers hoofprints).

This is the best picture I could get as the camera wasn't doing that well outside and the noisy kids were scaring the deer away!

Chances are I won't be on here again until after Christmas, so I hope you have a very Merry Christmas!

The kids are in hyper-active mode now that the countdown to Christmas is on!

This was one of the healthiest and nicest Poinsettia's that I have ever seen...

at least it was in the store! After I bought it and brought it straight home in -33 weather it wasn't so healthy looking!