a great explosion

There was a huge explosion in our house this morning.  It was crazy - I thought we might all die.

It snowed.

All of a sudden the kids were screaming, freaking out and going crazy.  Cade ran into our room yelling.   I thought I might poop my bed.  Actually, I hardly stirred for a bit because I was so crazy tired from having Lucy in bed with me, making me sweat and stealing my blanket.  Under normal circumstances I would probably have been joining them with the screams, cries of joy and all that.  But my brain and body were both revolting to waking up early after a bad night.   Both Eric and I made it out of bed and I tried to clear the goop from my eyes WHILE taking pictures.  Thank goodness for auto focus.

 Mia - the first snow angel of the year.

 There was so much excitement that breakfast was abandoned.  No, I did not make them pancakes.  No, they did not make their own pancakes.  Leftovers.  Yup.

 By the time I got my snow gear on, the kids were gone to their cousins.  This whole ordeal started when cousin Brooklyn showed up at our door with snow pants for Mia, telling them about the snow.  So they followed her to her house.  Thankfully, they are not hard to track down in freshly fallen snow!

 Tons of Canada geese could be heard flying - finally heading south.  I learned from Eric, who learned from my uncle that they don't head south because of the cold, they head out when snow falls because they can't find food any more.  This is proof…. first day of real snow (we've had little bits here and there that melted right away), and they are out-a-here!

 I found them in the church parking lot between our house and the cousins'…. having a grand ol' time.

 Brooklyn also won the neighborhood contest for the Giesbrechts.  First real snowfall - the first family to get a snowman made wins.  They get the trophy-Christmas ornament and then the neighbors get together for hot chocolate, etc. for the awarding of the ornament.  I can't even begin to tell you how very very much I want to be part of a neighborhood like that.  It almost aches.

 Their neighbor across the street, and older gentleman, started making his snowman, even after congratulating the Giesbrechts for their win.  You still need to make a snowman after all!  I love that spirit - even if you are older, tired and have to shovel your driveway, you still take time to make your snowman!  After I left, their other neighbors tried to steal their snowman for their own, but Cade spotted them and the kids caught them!  Snowman saved.

 I would be failing if I did not show the downside of snow…. aside from the snow, of course.  Shoveling.  Eric had to get out there and work his booty off.  Especially difficult as the driveway of our rental is gravel.  A gravel driveway is not a shovel friendly driveway.

 Once the kids were back home, they decided that our house needed to look more wintery, so they threw snowballs at the windows to snow-it-up a little.

You may notice bits of Christmas decorations here and there.  Yup - lots of it is up.  Pretty excited about that.  Still have the tree and a few other things to do yet.  Loving it!

Today was Christmas Eve, Christmas Day weather - what I pray for every year (even some years when I didn't live in a snowy climate!).  Now that the first snow is taken care of, we need to move on to the first blizzard!  Yahoo….. as long as you are cozy at home, of course.

Soon we are heading out to Winnipeg for our first diving in the snowy, slippery conditions (especially since we went to bed while it was raining and woke up to snow…. that means the rain water froze before getting covered with snow - not the best driving conditions).  Should be interesting.