Another Sims night. 364/365

Just Dance. 365/365

It would have been too easy to post a pic of the kids playing this new Wii game. I decided to post my sisters and I attempting to follow the "dance coach" on this hilariously fun game. Everyone in the house tonight played this game. It was especially fun watching the men dance to "You Can't Touch This". I don't have photographic evidence of that as I was busy trying to keep my video camera steady all the while laughing so hard I was crying.

Wii Sports. 363/365

Which team do you think is winning?!

Derby Ready. 362/365

Maddie (wearing Jordan's new roller skates) getting some assistance from her big sis.

More Cousins. 361/365

It was nice spending time with all of the cousins!

SIMS 360/365

It's great that they love hanging out together and even better that they're interests are similar.

Merry Christmas 359/365

The grandkids. 358/365

The first time we've had all of them together!

Breaking the law. 357/365

According to one Minnesota state law, it's illegal to cross the border with a duck on your head.

On the road. 356/365

On our way to Minnesota!

Jolly Fella! 355/365

This is the masterpiece of the day!

Army of snowmen. 354/365

The snow finally melted enough to pack together so now we have an Army of snowmen. The life-size snowman is still in the works.

The weather outside . . . 353/365

Well, it's not really frightful except for the fact that we're unable to pack the U-Haul truck or even back it out of the driveway. This is what we woke up to this morning and snow continued to fall all day long. The girls had fun in it even though it wasn't wet enough to build a snowman. You can see them in the top of this photo making snow angels.

The snow is here! 352/365

We could have up to 15" after this storm moves through. I bet we have half of that on the ground already.

You are Special. 351/365

Maddie left this inside Jordan's school laptop.

It takes a village. 350/365

We don't have many holiday decorations out, but we did manage to get the village put in place.

5th Grade Presents . . . 349/365

Once on a House Top. This is Maddie performing "Big Red Fella in the Chimney" with the rest of her class.

Little Hoodlum. 347/365

Maddie found a pack of candy cigarettes the other day and had them in her purse. On the way to the mall tonight she asked if she could have "a cigarette". It took me a minute to remember the candy. Then she said, "Mom, you should take a picture of me leaning on a wall smoking." Good thing there were no other people around when we took this photo.

More rain. 345/365

We had rain all day. Too bad the temps hovered just below 40 degrees. We could have had a couple of feet of snow if the temps would have cooperated. The girls and I went to the [outdoor] mall anyway and needed a warm drink after an hour walking store-to-store in the cold rain.

Hugs. 346/365

We had our family Christmas today since we will be packing a moving van next weekend and, as I mentioned before, we'll be in Minnesota for Christmas. Maddie loves to give gifts. Her gift to me was a coupon for "free hugs". So I cashed in on a hug and Pete did, too.

The stockings were hung . . . 345/365

in anticipation of our early gift giving tomorrow.

SPCA. 344/365

Every other week I drop Jordan here so she can help anywhere she's needed. She's part of the Richmond SPCA Animal Brigade. Maddie is now old enough to volunteer, too. She'll start in January. I can't wait to have two kids telling me about the cute cat or dog we need to adopt!

Jilly. 343/365

She is staring intently at a squirrel. When she's not sleeping, she's stalking birds and squirrels (through the windows).

The Tree. 342/365

Since we're going to be in Minnesota for Christmas this year, we decided to put up one of the smaller trees. And rather than pull out all of the decorations, we just threw all of our Mardi Gras beads on the tree. It looks quite nice.

Letters from the Pole. 342/365

It's a great day at our house when Santa takes time to write a letter!

Gingerbread. 340/365

Unfortunately, there was no snow on the ground this morning. That's okay, though, the gingerbread houses needed building.

Snow!! 339/365

It was the first snowfall of the season today. This snow has been anticipated for more than a week now. All day today Maddie was watching for snow and when it finally came around 4:15, she found Jordan and they went outside together to play in it, even though there wasn't anything to really play in. We have hopes for tomorrow that there will be more and it will stick!! I wish it to keep snowing so that we can have no school on Monday!

Written By: Jordan

Ocean Project. 338/365

This was actually a fun homework assignment. I still had to remind her to work on it everyday, but she was proud of her project today when she had to turn it in. She was happy that hers was made of newspaper covered with plaster, coated with paint and sand of different colors and a little grass and shrubbery when most of the other kids used play-dough.

Rescue Mission. 337/365

I don't like spiders. They give me the creeps. However, I know they serve a useful purpose which is the only reason I don't kill them. This guy was crawling across our family room floor tonight and it took all of the courage I could muster to capture him and set him free outside. Once he was outside though, he didn't move for several minutes. Long enough for me to run back inside, grab the camera, and set up a few good shots.

More rain. 336/365

I'm beginning to realize winter in Virginia means rain - not so much cold and definitely not snow. Just lots and lots of rain.

Favorite Holiday Books. 335/365

We'll read a book a day until Christmas. On Christmas Eve we'll read the one with the big gold bow. Yeah, I know it's weird I took the picture outside - the indoor lighting is awful.