Can You Believe This?

Can you believe this is the view out my front door on Sunday morning......



...and this is the view Tuesday morning?!!
I like this view a lot better.
On Monday it was actually in the 50's after weeks of 20's and below.
I guess our snow headed over to Arizona; have fun with it, Emily!

Morgan's Rock!

We went out with a BANG, pun intended!
Our final December Sunday dinner group was hosted by:



And:

And they laid out the most delicious taco bar ever seen. The choices were numerous, including 3 different choices of meat, cheeses, and salsa (all homemade).

Since Katie was still hurting from her Christmas morning accident,
Tom served as the on the spot tortilla cooker.

And he had a very appreciative group of diners.

And though the food was fantastic, the company was even better.

Hazel proudly showing off a missing tooth.

And Wolfie, just relaxin'

This little guy is a special buddy of mine and as adorable as they come.

Wini is a big fan of the Hulk and it appears that he's been rubbing off on her!

This special moment with Atticus was a highlight of my evening.
Why is it they're always cutest when they're asleep?

The evening included games........

.....and some serious Rocking!
Guitar Hero was the real star of the evening.

It started out with the youngest generation testing their skills.

Ella and Hazel were great on the vocals!

And Thomas and Calvin weren't too shabby at the drums.

But things really began to rock when that middle generation took charge of the game!

Wish you could have been there to see Dwight belt it out. Didn't know he had it in him.
I thought sports was all he knew.

He had some good back up from the band.

But then they brought in the seniors......

I admit I was rather reluctant as I was placed at the drums.

And rightfully so, as the rest of my band soon (only 4-5 tries!) decided I might do better on vocals.

Yes, we Morgan' s rocked the neighborhood until well after 9:00 PM!
Can you believe the hour?
As we all prepared to leave, the 'Von' Morgan's treated us to a "So Long, Farewell......."

Thanks gize for a fantastic evening. I just don't want these Sunday evenings together to end.
Maybe we can at least do it once a month in 2009!
What do ya' say, gang?

Snowed In

I woke up to blizzard conditions this morning. But, being the die hard exercise enthusiast that I am, I still got up and drove to the gym for a nice one hour work out.
When I came out of the gym, my car was covered with snow. Since I couldn't find any snow scrapers in the car, I had to sit there for about 10 minutes with the windshield wipers going and the defroster heating before I could get enough snow off the windows to see how to drive home.
The snow continued falling quite heavily until 12:30 and then it began to slow a bit.
This is what it looked like a few minutes ago:

Anyway, since I'm stuck in the house instead of out shopping the sales with my treasured gift certificates, I have plenty of time to post this darling picture of
Thomas, Hazel, and Violet in their new Christmas jammies,
that I took Christmas morning. Somehow it got left off of my Christmas post and I just knew you'd all want to see it!

You gize drive safe, okay?

Grandma and Grandpa Take to the Road

Since all of the kids made the trek to our house for Christmas Eve, it was our task to hit the road at first light and make the rounds to each of their homes on Christmas morning.

The roads were treacherous, but we managed to slip and slide our way to the first stop:
Home of the Morgan Strasser Family

We arrived in time to see Wini open her major gift:
Baby Alive



I must tell you that she didn't seem all that thrilled with the gift.
She insisted I include her transformer in my picture of she and Baby Alive.

I understand her motherly instincts took another dive when Baby Alive did her first
poo poo! She found it a bit disgusting to be on the other end of a diaper change.

Teddy seemed pretty thrilled with everything he opened.
This light saber brought a big grin to his face.

The big guy was quite pleased with these cars. He told me he was a big collector.

Wolfie was pretty quiet during the whole unwrapping process, but did get a smile on his face when grandpa removed another Chevron car from the packaging and handed it to him.

Here he is with a couple of favorite gifts....his new brown gloves and a pink Chevron car.

Teddy and Wini's favorites were these transformers.
I believe one was named Bumblebee and the other Optimus Prime.

They immediately had a battle of the transformers.

The final scene before we headed off to our next stop.

As we arrived at the home of the Thurston family, we were greeted by this adorable little guy who proudly displayed his new hat and gloves. From the way things looked on our drive over, he's going to be able to put those gifts to good use.

Bailey was very pleased with a new book. Did you know he was an avid reader?

Calvin was busy trying to figure out this interesting puzzle.
Before we left it had been solved....way to go Calvin!

Amy was busy in the kitchen assisting Ella with a big cooking project using Ella's new cooking, decorating apparatus.....can't remember the official name, but obviously it was a big hit.
Dwight wasn't too sure their cupcake maker would really work, but he was proven wrong.

Calvin received this three D puzzle from his Christmas Eve treasure hunt and is proudly displaying his ability to put it together. Looks great, huh?

Ella was very pleased with a gift that was really for John, the hampster.
He's in there and is soon rolling across the living room floor in his nifty new exercise ball.

Grandpa got a lesson in patience as he tried to help Howie figure out how to transform his transformers into whatever they transform!

A final pose from 4 exceptionally sweet grand kids!

Our final destination took us out to Eagle and the home of the Morgans.
We found poor Katie incapacitated and in terrible pain due to this stuff....

...here.
She had a bad slip and slide accident on her way down the driveway to pick up the newspaper.

She was doing her best to be a good sport. We're hoping nothing vital is cracked, or broken, so that she'll be up and about soon.

Violet was very happy with a new DS that she's displaying below.

Hazel is showing me all of the books she got from Santa.
Would you believe a little 7 year old could read all of those.
Hazel is definitely an exceptional little girl.

Thomas is more into Wii, so this game put a smile on his face.

Atticus was at first terrified by this new bear who wiggles and such.
But he soon became a bit more comfortable with it's presence.

The family gift of Rock Band (I think that's what it was called) was the big hit of the morning.

Even grandpa thought it was fun.

Thomas gave grandpa a lesson in how it's done.

Hazel and Violet got new matching hats, gloves, and scarves.

Don't they look cute in them.

That was our last stop. It was a joy to see all of the happy faces on Christmas morning.
We returned home and made a few phone calls to the loved ones who are far away.
It was fun getting to hear how the morning went at each of their homes.
Thanks to all of you for the wonderful, thoughtful, gifts we received and most especially for the beautiful posterity you have blessed us with.
We love you all with all our hearts.
Merry Christmas