right now

right now

Dec 21, 2009

Friends, Fun, Chaos & Snow!

Today is a lazy blog of pictures, but when it comes to the kids - pics speak volumes! We had a Christmas Party Saturday night for a few of our friends, all of us are stuck here for the holidays. This is probably a good thing, since many people we know had to cancel their plans for road trips Friday. The start of the military's Christmas leave period coincided with the largest snowstorm in years and record snowfall amounts across several states. Most everyone we know travels from 600-1200 miles one way to get home for the holidays, and usually by car since cost prohibits us from flying with children, pets, etc, so the storm put a damper on plans. Parts of the state of VA here received 28 inches in less than 24 hours!! Here, however... different story, only a dusting near the coast, although the bad road conditions started less than an hour from here. The kids were a bit disappointed, and I was too - I was looking forward to being able to make my kids shovel the driveway!

Here are a few pics of our party the other night. We had a dinner of Elk Chili, Buffalo Wings, assorted appetizers and way too many cookies!

Hubby keeping an eye on the food

Great friends!

All my baking efforts of the past week!

A little bit of Christmas came early for the kids

Did someone say "sugar"? Apparently cookies were enough to remove the gas mask and take a break from whatever game required it...

Best friends Liz & Nick can always be counted on for a get together of any sort!

"Military Family" cousins! Note that it was ALL BOYS, except for one gorgeous girl that hung out with us in the other room... can't say I blame her!

Our "Military Family" Christmas Portrait... first of several we will take between now and Christmas Eve & Christmas Day. Drop-ins are welcome too!

I am not sure this video needs any explanation... I will say, however, my house was spotless before the invasion of the children! Listening to this from the other room we commented that in a few short years our homes will be quiet and we will miss this!

...and did the child seriously ask me for a ladder?!!



After dinner it started SNOWING, yay!


Snow on the Blue Star Juniper


Snow on the Mugo Pine


Snow on the deck


Snow on the winter container garden
** this morning's update: the sub freezing temps and snow didn't hurt the Giant Parsley or the ornamental cabbages and only damaged a few leaves on the Chard!

Hope you all are having fun over the holidays, whether you are with family or making your own family wherever you are!

8 comments:

  1. Wait a second...I still see floor in that playroom. That, and the child on the bunk bed didn't jump off while you were filming. Time to party harder!!!

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  2. My boy just SQUEEKED by getting out of Fort Lee......I'm so glad he missed all that. Hope you have a great Christmas. Love all the "chaos" there....I sure do miss that (at times!)

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  3. Looks like a great party to me! Even in five short years, if you were to video those very same kiddies, it would be a very different scene. And in ten, they'd just about all be out of the home. Enjoy, enjoy. Especially at holiday time. Once they're gone, it's very different. WAAHHH! (But a LOT quieter.)

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  4. Hehehe, makes me glad I only have one to contend with. ;)


    I hope you and the family have a wonderful Christmas that's filled with lots of love and laughter.

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  5. Ribbit, no kidding! The only reason you still see open floor is because I hid the legos before the party. Sue, so glad your son made it home safely. Mama Pea, we are trying to enjoy these years for sure, and Dani, sometimes I think parties are easier with all the kids since they tend to entertain themselves without our intervention, although we have to deal with the mess afterwards!

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  6. Yayyy, snow! How fun that must have been!

    Are you in the picture of "the family" or are you taking the picture?

    (I particularly like the new picture of your hubby with the knitting needle nose ornament.) ;)

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  7. ChickenMama, I am in the pic, in blue. We were trying out the self-timer function on the camera, so this was the best we got out of 7 shots, lol... pretty pathetic! hubby is the one giving me "moose rack" behind my head

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  8. BTW, love the U of M Christmas tree topper! ;)

    (I went to UMD.)

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