Afternoon on the ice

Jenny and Ryan are in town for Christmas so we decided to do something fun with the kids today.  We rented skates for everyone and went out to the fairgrounds for a little ice skating party.  The kids caught on quickly and Jenny showed a surprisingly natural ability for ice skating.  I was minding my own business skating down the bumpy rink when my toe caught and I pitched forward slamming my knee directly on the ice.  The pain didn't go away and it was getting stiffer by the minute so I went to sit down.  In the meantime, everyone was having a good time.  Ryan and Jenny were doing all kinds of funny tricks, Ryan was filming, pops was helping the kids out. 

We were just winding down, enjoying some hot chocolate when Ryan hit the ice catching himself with his hands.  He heard a pop and was in instant pain.  He and Jenny headed to the emergency room where they spent the next 5 hours.  Turns out his elbow is fractured so they are heading home a couple days early to get that taken care of asap.  

Not long before we left, Luka was scooting around on the ice in her snow boots, doing just fine when she fell hard and hit her nose resulting in a bloody, boogery mess.  What a day!  We should have done something safe...like sledding.

And darker...

The day after my last post I was sitting on the couch and out of the corner of my eye noticed that some of the lights on the tree were burning really bright.  You know what that means.  Five minutes later...POP!...another strand went out.  At the rate we're going, there will be only three strands lit on our tree and those are the ones we put on the night we put it up.  So sad.  

The tree is getting darker

Another string of lights went out on our tree.  We knew they would go out because they burn REALLY bright just before they die.  That's what each strand has done.  So be warned.  If you see your lights burning brighter than normal...it's about to go out.

Oh, Christmas Tree

Our tree has been up for a little over a week now and today another strand of lights went out. See the dark spot just above the middle of the tree? I hope this tree makes it to Christmas. How pathetic.

Deep Freeze!!

I heard Al Gore yesterday talking about global warming and the polar ice caps melting. Since we have been in a deep freeze all week with temps about 15-20 degrees below normal, go ahead and send those polar ice caps down this way. They will freeze in an instant! And winter hasn't even officially started. Last night at 9pm it was a whopping zero degrees outside. This global warming is kicking my butt!

Baptism

This has been another busy week.  After last weeks birthday and Thanksgiving celebrations we were ready to put up the Christmas tree.  What a disaster that turned out to be.  The kids were so excited as we got out all the boxes and Mark started putting our tree together.  It's a pre-lit tree we bought when Em was a baby and it has served us well all these years.  However, last year a couple of the stands of lights started acting up but with a little shake they came back on and stayed on.  Phew...another year we avoided buying a new tree.  

Mark had set up the whole tree and then decided to plug it all in.  We weren't so lucky this year as half the lights would not turn on.  By this point, the girls had put out all the other decorations they could and were ready to move on to the tree.  It was getting late, they were getting tired and Mark's frustration was growing.  He tried everything we could think of to get the lights to work but to no avail.  We were about to throw the whole thing out and just buy a new tree when my neighbor suggested we just string new lights on top of the old lights.  Yeah! It worked and we turned the tree so the dark spots are in the back where you can't see them anyway.  We did have to wait until the next night to put the decorations on but it looks good enough for now.  

Just the other night, another string of lights went out.  Fortunately, it was in the back and you can't really tell.  

I love this picture because it shows Josie's true character.  She won't hold still for  even two seconds while I take a picture.  She was moving on purpose.  She's such a teaser.  

On Saturday, Emily got baptized.  It was a really nice program and Mark's brother (and his family) and aunt and uncle were able to come down.  We had a really nice luncheon afterward and were able to visit with family and friends.  We had a packed house and as soon as everyone left, we headed to Lindsey's dance performance at a holiday craft fair.  When that was done we went back home, gathered up Emily and went back to the fair for their singing performance.  It was really cute.  They did so well.  They are both a couple of performers and didn't seem phased at all to get up and sing in front of a bunch of strangers.