Snowed In. Shoot me now.

Winter break officially started yesterday. But because of the crazy amounts of snow we've received, the boys have been home every day for the last WEEK. Sure they've been having fun in the snow but they can only stay outside for so long. So they keep bugging me to watch TV, play on the computer, play their Leapsters, etc. I've been encouraging them to find other, more creative things to do but it's not going as well as I would like. Oliver has gotten his Erector set back out. He took apart the airplane and is building a motorcycle with it now. Owen played with Play-Do for quite a long time the other day. The cutest thing they did was to host a birthday party for Nutty, their stuffed animal squirrel. Nutty had lots of stuffed animal friends attend the party. The animals played a game of kickball together with the whoopie cushion serving as home base. That was a riot.

As I write, all I hear is a raging din coming from downstairs. All three of them are yelling and laughing like wild men. NPR is in the background as Brian is in the kitchen. I just heard Owen yell, "Dad, Oliver took off all my clothes!" Must I go down there and face it? Sigh. I guess so. I just have to remember they're not always like this. Sometimes they're like this:


I did get out the other night to take the Os to see The Tale of Despereaux. It was lovely. A bit dark but that's the story. The book was much better, by the way. I also took Oliver to hear a sing-a-long of Handel's Messiah last night with a friend and her daughters. I thought it was one of the coolest things I'd ever been to. Oliver was totally bored. The Messiah is pretty boring as music goes. But there were between 75-100 people who showed up to sing the chorus and it was beautiful. The sopranos in the audience were the highlight of the night for me. They were having much too much fun. The conductors were having fun with it too. Most of the musicians were high school students but you would NEVER know. There were all the cream of the crop from the local area high schools. There were several violins and violas, quite a few cellos, one bass, one percussionist, two trumpets, two oboes, one bassoon, and a HARPSICHORD! It was most excellent.

My car is snowed in and there are NO snow shovels left in the stores. Not that I trust my tires on snow. Brian has fancy new snow tires so if I want to go anywhere I have to wait to take his car. He's off work starting now. He's barbecuing brisket for Christmas Eve. I'm glad he's home to help me control those things that have replaced my children since the snow came.

I hope everyone has a wonderful Christmas.