We had snow for one whole day (Jan 17th) and I was exhausted. First, the school called around 5:30 to say school was cancelled, so all the kids were up. Then, they all wanted to go outside at 5:30 to play in it. Here is Gordon with his pajamas on and a coat heading out the door…stop!

The rest of the day was spent putting snow clothes on and off, changing the wet ones for dry ones and wiping up the wet floor. I just ended up laying a bunch of towels everywhere. Four snowsuits, three snowmen, two pots of hot chocolate, one crying child hit with a snowball…and a partridge in a pear tree.

Of course they have to throw the snow at each other every chance they get….and the result is….

They can work really hard when they want to. Ethan (4 years old) made this snowman (except the eyes and mouth) all by himself.

At one point they decided to jump on the trampoline, which became more of a wrestling snow arena.

I think I like to look at snow…yeah, just look at it. That’s pretty.

We rocked out after Christmas with a lot of Guitar Hero. One night I played after the kids went to bed from 8-12 pm. I was the top dog for a while there with my band, One Hot Mama, but I’ve been passed now by Motor Pa (Rob’s) and Torrent (Nick’s). When my brother and sister came to town, we all took turns jammin out. I think my brother had the best guitar stance…Guitar Hero has just got to be played standing, no couch potatoes here.
We also played a couple games of capture the flag with our arsenal of Nerf guns. We have barrel and single shot ones and if you play with us, you are required to wear the safety goggles. It was two teams of kids and adults. My brother was literally sweating. I had the other team’s flag in my hand and was heading back to base when my brother came running past me with our flag in hand…man!
My brother and his wife playing Foozeball with Gordon and Ethan.

We also had games for prizes. Our favorite games are Settlers of Catan, Phase 10, and Yahtzee. Here’s my sister setting up a game. I won socks and an oven mit. Rob won socks and hot cocoa. Thanks for supplying the prizes dad!

On Christmas Eve we went to Winston Salem to Tanglewood park to see the spectacular light display there. We went last year also, and loved it so much. This year we took my parents and my sister’s family. On the way home we discussed Santa and at home the boys tracked him on Norad, then wrote a note to Santa and left him cookies and a few carrots for the reindeer. I love reading what the boys write to Santa. Ben said “I want to wish you a merry Christmas and present you a plate of cookies and carrots, which are for the reindeer.” Nick said “I’m also excited about you coming here also. Plus, I’m not dumb, because I can do great things even though I’m mildly autistic. Like learning Russian.” Nick then wrote out the Russian alphabet and the phonetic spelling for each letter for Santa. Santa wrote him back in Russian:)

In the morning Santa came! He wrote a nice note to the boys and ate all the goodies. We told the boys the earliest they could wake up was 7:30 am. 7:30 am on the dot they were all in our room. We sang Happy Birthday to Jesus and then…
Presents
Santa gave mostly group presents this year for us all to share. A great Wii system, with Guitar Hero, DDR, Mario Galaxies, Zelda, Hot Wheels, Wario Moves, Lego Star Wars, Pokemon, Mario party, Wii sports, and Wii play. He also gave us an addition to our family…a Robo Hamster (cutest mini-hamster) that the kids named Remy. The boys also each got a book, board game, movie and candy. My favorite thing about Christmas morning is the reaction from the boys, the “No Way!” and “Look at this!”

To keep the boys somewhat active during Christmas break, we went to Monkey Joes. It’s a place where everything is a blow up climbing, bouncing or sliding thing. I think it’s ridiculously expensive, so we only go maybe twice a year. My parents, who were watching my two nephews for a week while my sister and her husband went on a cruise (luckies!), came also with the nephews. Ethan bounces everywhere, but is scared of slides. I don’t blame him, I’m scared
of slides too.
Gordon’s favorite thing at Monkey Joes is climbing.

Ben likes the tube with all the obstacles, but all I have is a picture of him sliding.

Even 13 year olds like Monkey Joes. Nick found a kid to hang out with and they climbed all over.

School started today, and I want Christmas break back. We had a nice restful break and it wasn’t long enough. I’m not looking forward to homework, activities, and schedules that are coming back. I also am really going to miss sleeping in. Here are some things we did during break:

Ethan was in the Christmas spirit and used a lot of his time (and tape) wrapping various toys and such to give to family members.

Here’s Gordon practicing piano. He also did lots of crafts. He made 7 suncatchers, and a wall mural filled with Christmas trees and a nice snowman with butcher paper. It’s hanging in his bedroom.

We all went to the mall and played lazer tag, video games and raced cars. Here is Ben climbing the rock wall.

Nicholas discovered that his braces are also magnetic!