Happiness

It's been no secret. We've been wanting snow. I told the kids in December that if it wasn't going to snow outside then it would inside. And I then proceeded to cover my kitchen in paper snowflakes. But then miraculously . . .

it snowed! I was praying for a white Christmas and we got it! I wasn't the only one thrilled in the house. Waking up Christmas morning, as we opened the blinds in the boys' bedroom Jaron let out a shout of excitement. He then promptly insisted we get him in his snow gear so he could play in it. Who cares about presents - let's get out in the snow!

The timing was a little less than ideal however. Our big surprise gift for the kids was a swing set. We have a great neighbor/ward member who gave us this swing set. The plan was to move it secretly on Christmas Eve and then surprise the kids with it the morning. I had great visions of them running out the back door to go play on it. Well . . . that didn't exactly happen. It was a tense hour or so as I furtively peaked out the blinds at our work crew (Clark, my dad, home teachers and other friends). I never expected it would be such a temptation for the kids to look out the closed blinds but they wanted to see what was going on with the weather. I had a close call with a child almost seeing.

We never would have guess that we would have this type of weather. It wasn't pretty at 4 pm. The rain that started that morning turned to frozen ice pelts. Apparently, it felt like BB's smacking their faces. And I don't even need to tell you about the wind. It was crazy! But they got it up, sans the slide. It looked like it magically appeared Christmas morning all covered in snow.

Despite the wind and the cold we still took the swings for a test ride. Eliza loved it. And typical Eliza screamed when I removed her. She hasn't been back on since. (I haven't been willing to brave the cold.)

The snow is still on the ground. I love the look of it. And it snowed again the other night and we have more predictions for falling flakes. Clark and I even crazily went out on a Christmas Eve stroll (about 11 pm). It was bitter cold, the falling snow was more like intensely blowing bits and it was a short lived walk but incredibly fun.

All told, the snow has brought some happiness to our household.