Baby, It's Cold Outside!

We kicked off the new year last week with pancakes and a cozy Pajama Day on January 1, and stayed warm indoors after just returning from our Christmas travels.  So far, it's been a frigid winter, and it's absolutely freezing outside!  L&L have gone to ONE full day of school since December 20th, including early dismissals, delays, days off, etc. which are all due to cold weather (and not a single snowflake)!     

While we were in Pennsylvania over Winter Break, we took advantage of the cold temperatures to take the kids snow tubing for the first time:

We bundled up in our winter gear, and had a great time tubing at Ski Roundtop.  This is the place where I participated in my school's weekly Ski Club growing up, and it brought back lots of memories.  The kids asked if they could try skiing/snow boarding next year, and I'm excited about teaching them.  In the meantime, snow tubing was a blast, and we all enjoyed it.  

Here are the kids at the top of the run.  We rode down in tandem several times, too, but I couldn't figure out how to take pictures of that (while holding on for dear life!):

The Magic Carpet took us to the top of the tubing hill, and Leah showed us how to ride up in style!

We're under all that winter gear somewhere! 

She looks so little in this giant tube!  

One recent event that warmed our hearts was the Children's Christmas Program at church.  Our little sheep and Wise Man did a wonderful job helping to tell the Nativity story, and were adorable in their costumes: 

I was a little nervous at our dress rehearsal the day before the performance, as here are a few of the things that were said/overheard:  

1.  "Children, we DON'T throw Baby Jesus!"

2.  "Please stop eating the hay.  You are not a real cow/donkey/animal."

3.  "Give me the shepherd staff.  It is not a weapon."

However, the kids pulled it together, and the actual program went off without a hitch.  After weeks of rehearsal (and several sleepless nights/dreams later about all the things that could possibly go wrong), there was nothing more beautiful than the sound of those sweet little voices singing Christmas carols and telling the story of Jesus' birth.  The grand finale of the program was "Go Tell it on the Mountain", which was their favorite, and was sung with great gusto and enthusiasm.  

One other funny note about the Christmas program: I decided at the last minute to take all the costumes home to steam/press them the night before the performance.  Our friend teased me, saying, "Carrie, I'm SURE that the shepherds had perfectly ironed garb 2,000 years ago..."

In other news, the 4th graders also stayed warm with a recent indoor field trip to watch a women's WFU basketball game.  Somehow this was educational as it fit into their P.E. unit, and I was excited to be chosen as the chaperone for Luke's class.  The kids squealed with delight when they saw the name of their school flash across the coliseum, and there was a record high number of spectators at the game that day (with over 10,000 school aged children in attendance!).

Wake Forest won the game, and the players came up into the stands to give everyone high fives afterward.  I think that this may be my favorite field trip ever.  Wake Forest Sports + seated, entertained, happy kiddos = WIN!

Our final warm and cozy activities right before Winter Break were Christmas parties.  Oh, so many Christmas parties!  We celebrated with Girl Scouts.  Both children had parties at school.  Mark had a work party.  My Book Club held its annual holiday gathering.  There were gift exchanges, book swaps, White Elephant gag gifts, and I taught a Sunday School lesson devoted completely to candy canes.  All of the festivities were wonderful, and I'm not complaining, but I did a lousy job taking pictures in between the shuttling of everyone, making treats, preparing food for potlucks, hosting class parties, and taking gifts to the appropriate places.  In fact, we didn't send out family Christmas cards this year for the first time. I decided that something needed to give, and that was it.  I think that God created January for hibernating after the hustle and bustle of the holidays, so perhaps the cold weather is intentional, so that we can cuddle up on the couch this month and slow down.  Here are the only three photos that I have of the last few days leading up to our Christmas travels.  As you can see, there was a common theme of red holiday attire in our family:

He still loves that Santa hat!

I made Grinch kabobs again for Leah's class this year.

Mark had an "Ugly Sweater" day at work, and this jacket was perfect for his "business casual" style!

We're staying warm with lots of snuggles, hot chocolate, and fires in the fireplace lately, and I just heard that there's only 72 more days until spring!