Winter Wonderland

 

We got a bit of snow this week, and the kids and I couldn’t be happier about it.  I finally feel like we have finally arrived at my favorite time of year.  We’re in the season where David straps on his skis and just plays outside for hours.  I have to force my children outside in the summer, as they complain constantly about the heat.  Winter is my kids’ playground time.  It’s their favorite season.  It’s the season where the fire is going in the house, the hot chocolate and tea is flowing, and reading books and talking about the important stuff of life is on our lips.

A week or so ago, David came in from doing outside chores screaming that the wind was burning his eyes.  It didn’t occur to Knut and I that since he doesn’t have eyelashes anymore, his eyes would be so effected by the cold wind.  Eyelashes aren’t there just to look pretty!  They actually have a purpose.  So on cold, windy days, he has to wear snow goggles, while he is outside, but can get by with a decent pair of sunglasses.  We are happy to find out that when it’s cold but not windy, his eyes are fine.  For awhile there, I was wondering if he had to wear the goggles outside all the time.  We are still watching him and learning.

Still no hair growth.  He was complaining one day that his arms were itching from all the new hair.  I looked and didn’t see any new hair at all.  I couldn’t even feel it.  But he said it was there just below the surface and itching.  I’m cautiously hopeful.

It was Ingrid’s first time really playing outside for a long amount of time with the big kids.  She was delighted by everything, except sledding.  She didn’t like that as much.  But when we went to make a snowman, she immediately laid down by where we were working, and made herself a snow angel without any of our prompting.  She knew just how to do it.  It’s like she was realizing a dream.

The kids built a big snowman, a little too close to the driveway.  Hopefully I don’t knock it over with the van backing up.  It will refine my backing skills when things are slippery.  Once the snowman was finished, we went to town for choir and tae kwon do.  When we got back it was dark, and late, and we were all running around trying to get groceries in the house and supper made.  When things settled down inside and we started our Advent reading, Lena, our black lab started barking her head off.  She was going nuts and wouldn’t stop.  Knut went to go check it out.

He realized she was threatened by the snowman.

So we let her outside so she could go out and bark at it’s face.  That made her feel better.  Oh Missy, we miss you.