Snow Day
Originally uploaded by jmodule
Another snow storm has passed our way, the second one this year after six years of no snow. It’s not as cold as last month, so we probably won’t get two inches again.
It actually snowed today. The forecast was predicting snow for our area, but we almost never get snow this far south. I was already at work when the temperature got cold enough for the rain to turn to snow. It started out as big, soft flakes, but now it has slaked off. The temperature is still dropping though, so we may see more.
I walked to the bank, as I normally do at the beginning of the week, and had fun going through the flurries. At home, the girls got bundled up and went out to play.
We’re supposed to get around 2 inches of snow in our area, but I don’t expect we’ll get much more than we already have. The biggest thing to look out for will be the ice when the temperature starts to fall again tonight.
Update:
Apparently for those of us in North Carolina, snow is getting almost as much attention as the President’s inauguration. The local newspaper noted that our area has not seen snow since 2003! Others were busy blogging with pictures and comments. 🙂
We had a Christmas party at my brother’s house on the 23rd. Then went up to my parents house for Christmas Eve. Then came back to town on Christmas to spend time with CDF’s family and have a Christmas dinner.
Once the Christmas decorations were done at our house — around December 1st — we started taking pictures around the tree, hoping to get one we could send out in the Christmas cards.
Then the weekend before Christmas we went up to Jacksonville to bake cookies and help decorate my Grandfather’s house. The two girls got to help with hanging ornaments. CE enjoyed it a lot — though she tended to hang a bunch of ornaments on a single branch, which is a lot like my siblings and I did when we were young.
Christmas Eve was celebrated at my Grandfather’s house as is the tradition. We got there around midday so I would have time to play a World War 2 game with my Dad and brothers, and also give the girls time to visit with their Aunts who were in town for Christmas.
That evening we enjoyed the usual fare of Christmas treats. My little nephew was also enthused about eating the cookies — though it looks like his Dad was eating more than sharing!
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Originally uploaded by jmodule
Last weekend we set up the Christmas tree, and that means it was time for the annual family Christmas picture. On the technical side, I set up things differently this year. To start with I was using off-camera flash, and while I like the lighting, it could use a lot of improvement in brightness and less red-eye. Also I got a remote shutter control for the camera so we no longer have to set the 10-second timer and then rush to get into position.
So the remote is great, the lighting was decent, and once CE had taken a good nap, we got a good picture for this year.
For a number of weeks MD has been sleeping without the guard rail attached to the bed (the kind that slips between the mattress and box spring). She has done really well and has not rolled off, at least until last night. Ironically she was just talking about falling off her bed a night or two ago. So sometime in the middle of the night I heard a thump and when I walked into her room she was standing up beside her bed, wondering what had happened. She doesn’t remember much of it this morning — probably a good thing.
The little one has been busy while here sister away (or around for that matter). The first picture was from breakfast one Saturday when I was keeping the girls at home.
Later on that day she was worn out and took a nap on the way home.
MD has enjoyed her second class at the dance studio. CDF took some pictures while they were waiting for the class to start.
Later that evening when I got home, MD still wanted to pose so I took another shot of her. It also features a new halter top that she was excited about (it’s like one an Aunt wears).
Some friends of ours from church have blueberry bushes beside their house that are old and well established. The bushes regularly produce lots of berries. This year the area got a lot of rain just as the berries ripened so our friends told everyone to come pick blueberries before they spoil from all the rain (I think it causes the berry to split after absorbing too much water).
So we went by today around 10:00 AM and picked a bunch of berries. They girls had a good time, MD ate almost as many as she picked, and CE joined in once she saw what MD was doing. Once the bucket was full, they were happy to keep on picking, and just eat what they picked!
We celebrated Pop’s 55th birthday on Friday. We had a cookout (but ate inside because of the heat) and grilled hamburgers and hotdogs. Pop got the grilling started, but my brother took over so he could go spend time with the guests.
Mom baked him a birthday brownie and CE helped blow out the candles.
See more pictures.