Greetings from Peak 8

We've just completed our first day of skiing at Breckenridge, Colorado. I don't have any photos to share yet (didn't try to manage the camera at ski school.) A small group of us girls spent the entire day with an instructor and are ready to hit the slopes with the men (who decided to make their own ski school) tomorrow. No injuries to speak of as of now, but Amanda was pretty entertaining sliding backwards down the slope towards a tree line as she attempted to recover from a previous fall. I finally understand the "dry cold" I've heard so much about. By 2:00, it was about 32 degrees and we started shedding clothes. Our front porch has about 3 feet of snow on it. Too bad I can't bring some home to the kids :-( More to come tomorrow or Saturday.....

Merry Christmas to all...

...and thank goodness it's over! Gary let us sleep in until about 7:30, then couldn't stand it any longer. He woke everyone and the madness began. Landon was most excited about his new Kawasaki Brute Force, and Gary a new speaker box for his 4-wheeler. Randy and Ryan (his 'lil brother) are outside installing something on Ryan's truck. Gary and Landon are giving that thousand dollars worth of new toys a rest after the long ride in HoHo's sleigh last night so they can play in two gigantic card board boxes. They've giggled more in the last ten minutes in the boxes than they have in a month!

Carol who?

Last night, a group of moms took a mob of kids Christmas Caroling. We stopped at quite a few houses of church members, family, and friends. I'd guess the average age of our 9 kids was probably 4. Participants included, Gary & Landon Wilson, Adrienne Vickers, Matthew Weeks, Jeb & Jake Spinney, and Bradley, Brennon, and Brooklyn Bockhaus. They had so much fun! After all their hard work, we treated the kids to McDonald's for supper AND let them eat and play on the playground (the real treat for them). The highlight of the evening for me was on the way to McD's when Adrienne asked, "When are we going to see Christmas Carol?" I asked her, "Do you know what a carol is?" She didn't so I explained that it was a song and she had been "Christmas Caroling" all evening long. I'm not sure if it all sank in or not, but I'll be sure to clarify myself a little better next year.

Thanks to all the kids for singing: Jingle Bells, We Wish You a Merry Christmas, and Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer; Thanks to our duet, Adrienne & Matthew, for singing Five Little Fingers; and Thanks to our soloist, Jeb, for singing Oh Christmas Tree. The preschoolers really stepped up to the plate and made the evening special :-)

OOHHHH Christmas Tree...

Gary's second grade classroom didn't have a Christmas tree at the time of their Christmas party, so our extremely talented and creative room mom's (Sandie Salley & Beth Weeks) devised a plan. The kids 'made' a 'live' tree! Great job kids!!!

Famous last words: Mrs. Spinney, "This better not end up on the internet!"...Sorry, with a room full of mom-bloggers, you have no other place to go :-)

I think she especially enjoyed the shining star that left her cross-eyed. She was a great sport!!

Can't you just hear the Chipmunks singing, "Christmas Christmas time is here, time for laughter, time for cheer..."?

It doesn't take much to make them laugh! (Gary's being silly with a monkey on his head at M&P's dinner table.)

Whistling Dixie

Growing up, Randy spent a lot of time with his grandparents and learned lots of valuable life lessons like: fixing things around the house, maintaining a yard/flowerbed, painting, tinkering, working hard until the task is finished, eating healthy stuff, driving fast (haha). The list goes on forever but my favorite of all is whistling. PawPaw is a whistler. When he’s working on a “project” (if he’s not yelling at Randy for dropping 2x4’s on his head) PawPaw is usually whistling. It’s a pleasant interlude to the monotonous sound of work and makes the task seem all the less bothersome. Randy picked up this habit, and treats us to a first-rate tune quite often. Gary began trying to whistle at a very young age. He practiced and practiced and has finally perfected his technique. Nowadays a sweet little tune dances through the house and I can’t tell if it’s Randy or Gary; but, I know one of them is hard at work on something really important.

How's this for hand-me-down?

About 30 years ago, Randy donned this exact hand-made shirt!!! His grandparents kept it safe (all these years) and surprised us when we picked him up at their house a couple of weeks ago.