Halloween's Snow Claus

There is so much anticipation and excitement built up for Christmas morning, then everything is pretty much over in under two hours. Has anyone else noticed that?

The afternoon excitement here in Aberdeen yesterday was the creation of a snowman. We have been pretty much snowed in all week, with huge snow drifts and lots and lots of wind. Craig (Chris's dad), Michael (Chris's brother), Brenda (Chris's sister) and Chris (Chris's self) spent a good two or three hours out in the yard. I, on the other hand, was taking a nap. Jane didn't sleep well on Christmas Eve. Apparently she was practicing for future years when she knows what Christmas Eve is.

Anyway, here is the result of their handiwork:

No official measurements have been made, but the estimate is that Snow Claus is roughly twelve feet tall. They used a ladder to create some scaffolding in order to reach the top, and I believe they actually divided some of the snowballs in half in order to heft them to the upper layers. Snow Claus is distincting less red today after the night's continuing snowfall, but he is still there. He is leaning slightly to the right, though...

For just a moment of bragging, my surprise Christmas gift from Chris was a Nintendo Wii. Hooray! I am very excited, although Chris and Michael have played it much more than I have in the last day and a half. The only games we have so far are Wii Sports and Wii Play, and I find that I get bored quickly playing the same very short games over and over. I think I'll have to invest in some other games when we get home. But I am very excited. :)

I did promise a few pictures of Jane opening presents, though they aren't quite her cutest. She was quite content to rip the paper off, but she was very careful to hand every piece of wrapping to someone else before she would tear off any more. And by the way, I did buy her a very cute "Baby's First Christmas" outfit, but I accidentally left it in Logan. To make up for my mistake, she wore her Halloween outfit instead. A holiday is a holiday, right?




The other project of the week is re-covering all the white keys on the piano. The original ivory starting cracking and breaking off in large pieces back in the day, and shortly after we were married, Chris and I spent a day sanding all the ivory leftovers off once all the big pieces had been removed. This week (yes, it's been a while), everyone has pitched in to affix the new plastic covers to the keys. It involves several steps, using tools including school glue, rubber bands, and tongue depressers. The project isn't quite done yet--a few keys had to be glued a second time, and everything still needs to be filed and leveled so the keys are all even and free-moving. But all told, the piano is starting to look very much like a piano once again.

One of my other gifts that I am very excited about is the Primary Children's Songbook. Thank you, Janet! I'm looking forward to the piano being fully assembled so I can break in my new songbook.

Merry Halloween!