Act Three

We woke up to new powder snow this morning, so we went out to play in it. Oh yeah, it’s also thawing–a nice change from Manitoba temperatures.

We’re back from our 2-week whirlwind tour of Manitoba. We celebrated Christmas, birthdays, and the New Year. It was difficult to say goodbye, but we really don’t miss the frigid temperatures we left behind.

Two of Pam’s cousins recently moved from Manitoba to New Brunswick. Since Massachusetts is much closer to New Brunswick than Manitoba is, it made sense for us to spend Christmas together. So we did. L became so fond of them that he wanted to go back to New Brunswick with them. Perhaps it was the boots.

Yesterday was L’s 2nd birthday. Having made about 50 laps around the coffee table with the train from his new wooden train set, L was in exactly the right frame of mind to enjoy his birthday cake and his birthday gifts.

We got several large dumps of snow and sleet over the weekend. True to form, the authorities around here got excited and started issuing cancellations and closures. Apparently six inches of snow nearly warrants declaring a state of emergency.

We welcomed the snow. It made our day today feel more like Christmas.

Happy Holidays everyone. May you have a merry Christmas and a happy New Year.

(If you click on this picture, you’ll get a high-resolution file.)

It wasn’t ideal snowman making conditions as there was an ice crust, but we did manage to make a little snowman before the rain started again. L thought that our snowman looked funny without a hat, but I wasn’t willing to donate one to the cause.

Hope that everyone is keeping warm in sunny Manitoba.

…we will make our own fun! L referred to the laundry hamper as “my boat”, but the rides that he was getting from his Dad looked more like sledding. I won’t complain about the rain and the plus zero degrees, but it would be nice to play in the snow.

I can’t believe that it is the second week of Advent already! Advent is the 4 weeks leading up to Christmas, in which you anticipate the birth of Jesus. True advent followers don’t put up their Christmas trees until Christmas, but I do. Growing up, we always put the tree up in the beginning of December so to me putting up the Christmas tree is anticipating Christmas.

L was excited to see the big tree take shape in our living room and of course he had fun putting the decorations on. He started with the gold balls, then realized that there were red balls that he could put on. The trouble was that the gold balls were all hanging on his favourite 3 branches, so he took them all off to make room for the red balls. In the end all of the decorations made it onto the tree with a little bit of sneaking from me.

Sunday we woke up to this year’s first snowfall. Of course it melted, but there was more snow this morning. Now it really does feel like Christmas is in 2 1/2 weeks.

I ‘m supposed to be working on a write-up for work while Daddy and L occupy each other, however I couldn’t resist peeking in the living room when I heard a little soprano join the bass. Then I had to capture the moment with a picture. L informs me that it is nice music.