SNOW DAY!!

(Sarah and Meagan go double down the hill.)

The kids are thrilled that for a second day in a row they have a SNOW DAY! Some parents inflict guilt on their kids by telling the proverbial, "When I was your age, I had to walk to school in 10 feet of snow uphill both ways..." I can't hold any such claim over my kids to illustrate how easy they have it now a days. I did all my schooling in Hawaii, Tucson, and southern Italy with nary a flake of snow on even a single day of school. I envied the kids I heard about in other parts of the country getting to play in the snow all day instead of going to school. So, yesterday was my day to share my childhood woes with them as they sipped hot cocoa after playing in the snow all day and I told them how "When I was a kid, I never got a snow day...not even once!" James, always looking at the bright side, said, "Well at least you get to have snow days with us now." He's right. Yesterday, though my to-do list is full of last minute holiday have-to's, I obliged them by hiking out back behind our house to find "our hill", the best sledding hill in walking distance-but it's out of sight from our home so the kids are only allowed to go there with an adult. There, 8 kids from around the neighborhood and I had a great time sledding a chunk of the afternoon away. Hooray for Snow Days!

James and Mather finish a run together. Look out here comes Charlie right behind you!

One of the neigbor girls built a "jump" on the sledding hill. It didn't work so well for the older kids, but Charlie and his friend Gabe loved it! With a good push from me they'd become airborne at the bottom of the hill. The two of them took turns, each time yelling, "Awesome! I got some air on that one!"

Abra-Ca-Dabra!

Abra-Ca-Dabra! Right before your very eyes, I've changed the name and address of my blog! I was thinking that with Christmas coming and all, I might let more than the 7 of you who read this know about my blog. Inviting more people here seemed to require a bit of house cleaning. So, I've worked my magic, or rather mAJjc, and changed things up a little bit. Thanks to you, family and friends, who have inspired me with your own blogs and encouraged me with your comments. Compliments for this, my favorite picture of the five of us, go to my sister-in-law, Shawna (see more of her work at http://www.lifeshadowsphotography.com/). Shawna captured this moment a little over a year ago. One of my New Year's resolutions is to get a big print of it and get it on a wall in our home before we no longer look anything like this anymore, because before you know it these three kids will, POOF!, like magic, grow up before your very eyes! I'm determined to capture some of the mAJjc as they do.