Now just imagine her scaling church pews back to front in her dirndl and flashing a coy grin at anyone who dared ruin her fun. I got a kick out a special forces guy and his wife giving her props! Oh she kills me! Who'd have known she'd been screaming for her life as we approached the nursery door just minutes earlier!
So, back to 6 Dec - St. Nikolaus Day . . .
Sunday evening, the kids were all excited to put a boot outside our door for St. Nikolaus. If they've been good, St. Nik will leave them a treat in their boot. If not, he'll leave twigs or a switch for parents to give spankings! (Morgan's slipped down inside.) For a quick Q&A about the tradition, click here for St. Nikolaus article.
In the morning, the boys instantly ran to the door to check the boots.
I say there's no better way to start the day than with a big hollow chocolate Santa!
A kind neighbor left us a bag of chocolates as well so I could leave the kids' alone.
Then I had to be the ogre that made them get ready for the day. I can't believe how much snow we've been getting! We've heard Easton's international school only cancels in cases of salt shortages so we got him out the door. Thankfully, Ryan is driving him. Bundling up Morgan and McKay was an adventure before we even got out the door. Morgan likes to take the "scenic route" through all the snow drifts challenging her athleticism while McKay wants to get to school to play with friends.
After shoveling a good 8 inches, the snow was still coming down heavily. It was comical to see Morgan try to cut through snow up to her thighs or use her sand shovel to "help" me. Soon Easton's school called for an early release at 1pm - road conditions were changed to a red. I tried to back out and head up our cul de sac's hill and couldn't get any traction. Very wet, quickly accumulating snow = wheels just spinnin'! Some construction guys working on a new home had to push me up the hill. With the hills and intersections I knew I'd have to encounter on the way to and from Easton's school, I chickened out and called Ryan. Luckily, the bases were getting an early release too!
To welcome home the stragglers, we had hot chocolate (although I had already treated myself to the good stuff Ryan brought home from last week's Tubingen chocolate festival - YUM!!!). I've realized recently that having spray whip cream in the fridge is becoming darn handy, practically a necessity! We decked the tree out and the boys hung the ornaments for the first time all by themselves. It's hard to resist being controlling about ornament placement when you've done it "just so" all these years, but they had a good time and were quite proud of themselves!
After dinner we started our new evening duties routine. Easton and I are a team, McKay and Ryan the other. One team's on dinner cleanup, the other on house pickup and bedtime routine enforcement. At first it was a little difficult again for me to let go and allow Easton rinse dishes his way, but putting on silly Christmas carols had us laughing and working together in the sink. He likes the BYU a capella group Voice Male's Jingles II album - especially their version of Rudolf the Red Nosed Reindeer! "Gimme a 'Whoop, Whoop!'"
Day one of the new routine went great and then it was time for FHE! Easton led us singing Silent Night and I'm sure we tortured our neighbors' ears if they heard us mangling a verse in German from Easton's school songbook. We watched President Monson's address from the Christmas devotional and talked about what Christmas is all about. Then the boys got their wish and we watched a Christmas movie - the animated "Christmas Carol."
Ahhhh, I wish every day could be a snow day! Except I'm out of eggs and really want/need to be baking but hate heading out in this stuff!
