Delayed Christmas Party

 Last night we finally had our annual Christmas party with our small group (delayed twice because covid).  It was so fun to be face-to-face with people.  I often wish that pictures can capture feelings.  They always fall a little short, but hopefully they'll at least help keep the memories alive of laughing and talking and just being with wonderful friends.

Some of the girls playing Twister

converging on the kitchen to get food

The highlight of the evening is the White Elephant Yankee Swap.  A lot of the presents are random junk that would have been donated to Goodwill (like the used candles and fruit bowl that Carter ended up with).  A couple of them are pretty good (like 3 bags of Aldi peanut cups that Micah took home).  There are always some used Tallmadge athletics shirts from the Hay house (Colton got them, but he kindly shared one with Matthew).  Then there are ones that have stood the test of time (like the cereal bowl from a white elephant 15 years ago, or the creepy owl decoration that Mike "accidentally" left at my house after winning it two years ago).

McKinley (who had seen it being wrapped) couldn't contain herself as Mike opened his gift.  She finally squeaked out "It's shoes!" just as Mike discovered a lovely pair of shiny blue women's sandals. 😄

But the absolute hands-down best gift of the night was a handmade book by Colton.  He drew pictures of every single person in the group, wearing an appropriate t-shirt and saying something about themselves.  He was dead-on for each person.  We all laughed so much reading it, and it was stolen repeatedly.

Winter Fun With Snow

Our Christmas was most definitely NOT white.  Neither was New Years....nor the next two weeks after that.... then, finally, on Martin Luther King, jr. Day, we got snow!  It may have been the most we've had at once here in Ohio - somewhere around 12-15 inches.  Everyone chipped in to help shovel, and then one of our lovely neighbors lent us his snowblower to finish the job.

Nana and Papa helping to shovel

Once the driveway was clear and the road was passable, we headed over to the sledding hill.

The roads were still messy in many places the next day (plus we got a couple more inches), so the kids got a bonus snow day.  This time we met friends at the sledding hill.

The Oysters had a trip out of town, so we volunteered to watch their dog Maple.  We all enjoyed her company very much. (The kids greeted her at the end of the school day with much more enthusiasm than they give me!)

Our church had a "Winter Blast" event that included ice skating and ice bumper cars. 

Since our local ski hill was bought by a national group two years ago, doing ski club has no longer been a good option.  I had told Micah I would take him skiing in January before school started again, but the hills weren't open due to the weather.  Then he was supposed to have a day trip with school to another resort, but it got cancelled. But on Friday, we finally got a chance to ski!  Matthew and Hannah had a day off for teacher workshops, and I let Micah skip school that day.  Matthew was the star of the day.  He has only skied a few times and gets frustrated that he can't automatically keep up.  But he worked hard at being patient and following my instructions, and he improved drastically!

Micah and Hannah

I think we wore him out..

Looks like there's another storm headed our way on Thursday!

Winter Fun...but No Snow!

 Our Christmas gift to Matthew was for Scott to take him to a Cav's game.  Thankfully they were out of quarantine in time!  Matthew loved it and was especially excited that he got a t-shirt.  (It was shot into the stands; someone nearby caught it and gave it to him.)

The Cav's were playing the Pacers just two days later, but we didn't choose that game because it would have been a very late school night.  However, when school break got extended a few days, Scott happened to see that there were some inexpensive seats available...so they went to a second game! (And took Micah, too, this time.)

Matthew and Hannah went back to school, but Micah still had two more days at home.  I took him and a friend to do some indoor rock climbing.

There was ping-pong for when you needed to take a break.  :) 

I climbed with them and mostly kept up.  Also, the smell and feel of chalk on my hands brought back happy memories of gymnastics.  

Things like these pictures happen sometimes.  I have no explanation.

Nana and Papa drove out to see us while the kids had a long weekend for MLK, jr day.  It was great to make up for the time we lost at Christmas.  And no one was more excited that Nana to see there was snow in the forecast....