Snow Day

Things get really crazy in the south when we get ice or snow. This past Monday it took Brett 3.5 hours to get to work because of the ice on the bridges. They actually shut all the bridges down to Charleston for a time on Monday (shortly after Brett was across) and we thought he was going to be stranded at his work by Mt. Pleasant. This is what some of our trees looked like. (And did you know that those things hanging off the ends are called 'tricycles' and not icicles? :)

School was at first a 3 hour delay and then closed on Monday and a 3 hour delay on Tuesday. With all that time, the kids and I created our own snow day with paper snowflakes. I threaded a few to hang on Ian's fan and turned it on for a snowfall. Here's the final product.And with all that chilliness outside, we spent some time snuggled under blankets and drinking hot chocolate.

What We've Been Up To....

So since my last post we've been keeping busy by:

Going to the James Island County light show. It was great and we even did the train ride (aka golf cart decorated like a train) which Ian loved. This is us by a giant sand sculpture.

Celebrating Christmas. Our kids were amazing and didn't "wake" until 8am when I went in to get them. We got dressed and ate sweet rolls (tradition) before going downstairs to see what Santa brought. Ian's big present was a bike which isn't in this picture and Livy's was a kitchen set. They both were giddy with joy.

Cooking my first turkey in 10.5 years of marriage I managed to escape this. I read up on "how to" on line and found a herb roasted recipe which turned out to be a keeper. My worries about whether the bird would fit my roaster, it would be raw when it was mealtime, too dry, were unfounded as it was OK.

Eating way too many treats. This only shows part of the treats that we had/received for Christmas. (We are still working on Halloween candy!). We finally finished the last Christmas cookie tonight for treat and Ian asked when I would be making more and my answer was, "next Christmas!

Happy 2nd Liver Day

Today is Ian's two year anniversary for his Liver Transplant. We have come so far in two years and are profoundly grateful to so many people. Ian only has labs once a month now, is only on one medication (which he will be for life) and sees the transplant team in Atlanta every six months. He is thriving in Kindergarten and life in general. This is a picture of him prentending to be Santa driving the sleigh with reindeer.

We'll be doing a liver day cake (complete with two candles) tomorrow when Grandma and Grandpa are here. We hope that we have lots more liver days to celebrate!

band date night

If anyone saw me out tonight, yes I was out on a date with a younger man.....Ian! Brett and I routinely do dates with the kiddos, and family dates, and on the then rare occasion a couple date. Tonight I took Ian on a date to the local high school winter band concert as he talks about musical instruments so much. I kept it suprise until we were in the car.

It was wonderful. He asked all sorts of questions about where the conductor was going to stand, if he (it turned out to be a she) would have a baton (she did), and where the tubas were. Ian is fascinated by tuabs and drums and guitars and thankfully, tonight all three were highlighted in some fashion.

I am very hopeful that his love of music and band will continue until he can select his own instrument to play and I am hoping of his three short listed instruments thus far that it is the tuba that wins out.

Not that type of turkey

Thanksgiving has come and gone as have the family that came to celebrate with us. We had a great time and the kiddos especially liked having some of their cousins here.

As is usual for our family we had a grown up table and a kid table for Thanksgiving dinner. Livia managed to hold her spot at the adult table probably because she bribed Brett with giving him her piece of pie :)

I also did my usual Black Friday shopping but Wal-Mart was sneaky this year and did it at 12:01 instead of crazy early in the morning. I actually liked the late night start. My sister and mom didn't believe me that you had to be there when the pallets were sliced open to get some of the deals and they were both amazed at what Black Friday was like. For me I thought it was really good with people actually helping get things for others like a special size and type of PJ, etc. I won't post what I got as one thing is the major Christmas present for Ian.

In the afternoon on Friday, all of us took the five kids bowling. This was a first for Ian and Livia and they LOVED it. Livy was so tiny she didn't have to wear bowling shoes even. We had a ramp and bumper pads. No one had a strike so we didn't have any of that type of turkey over Thanksgiving.

Trial and Error

This year for our family Christmas pictures we opted not to have them professionally taken but rather used our backyard scenery (not the usual fake Christmas backdrop) and the timer mode on our camera. And to really change it up, we opted for very simple attire this year for our family photo. While I am not posting the finalists that may make it into our Christmas Card yet, here are some of the out takes.

The blowing raspberries pose....

Help me I'm falling pose....

And my personal favorite...the choking pose. I was trying to get Ian to rest his hands on her shoulders. Apparently we need to sing head shoulders, knees and toes more often in family home evening to review exactly where our shoulders are.

Harry Potter Complete

I finished the Harry Potter Series yesterday and it was a wonderful read. So good that I am now looking to buy the books (in hardback) and I never buy books. Brett and I have been discussing things from the books as he read them when they were coming out but somehow I thought they would be too dark for me and not want to read them. I guess my Twilight and Hunger Wars reads in recent years has softened me.

I kept hoping that Harry Potter would not die and Brett wouldn't tell me yes or no which I didn't really want him to tell me.

We watched the first movie last night and as is almost always the case, the book was definitely better than the movie. I am hoping to watch all teh movies in time for the first half of Hallows later this month in theatres--yes another gasp that we would go and pay to see it in the theatre.