Glazed

Hooeeee, it's been cold in the Mid-Columbia lately complete with a small base layer of snow topped off with a glazing of freezing rain. That freezing rain is the worst! Schools around here have had a couple of late starts and one complete ice day off - that part I like! And with my little Droid phone, I can check the school district website for late-start notifications, then turn over and get another hour or so of deep sleep. Somehow I always sleep great between 6 and 7 a.m. :D

December is always busy and I'm pounding away at each activity as it arises. Early last week my job was to buy Christmas gifts for our employees' Chinese auction at our annual Christmas dinner. I was so anxious about finding things that they would all be pleased with - within my budget. After spending one entire day at Costco and the local mall, that job was completed. I was hoping that a couple of the items would spark some stealing, but everyone was very pleased with the package they pulled from the pile!

Also over the weekend, we hosted DH's brother and his family who came up for a basketball tournament that their youngest son played in. They arrived Friday night, kinda late after driving from Boise. Kip quietly walked in snuggling this tiny little creature which we immediately mistook for a guinea pig. But no, it was the sweetest little puppy that had been abandoned at the McDonald's that our nephew works at. What kind of heartless people drop off a tiny, unweaned puppy by a dumpster in temperatures near 0*F?



We all enjoyed this little girl so much! There's no better entertainment than watching a young pup learning to coordinate her legs and body to walk around and climb small obstacles in her path as we let her explore the kitchen - which has a vinyl floor so that the piddles she leaves were easy to clean. :) Over the weekend we heard her first real "bark". We're going to see a lot of growth in her when they come back up for Christmas!

One evening was devoted to the awards ceremony for the twins' cross country team. We enjoyed seeing all the boys on the team once again. Kevin and Kyle received their letters that night, and the next day I delivered them to the embroidery shop where we ordered their jackets. She still thinks we'll have them by Christmas - crossing my fingers that we do!



In the midst of the craziness, our water heater developed a leak. Luckily a slow leak so it didn't make a huge mess. So before it became a big mess, DH did some research and finally decided to hire a plumber to come in and install a new one and take away the old one - hallelujah!! It's so much easier to write a check than to write a check and install the water heater yourself as there's always something that goes wrong or something you don't have requiring another trip to Lowe's for the required piece of equipment. :D

Well, I think I'll end this little update here and try to get back to the making of my Christmas cards. I think they will be in the mail before Christmas, lol! Oh yes, and I need to finish decorating the Christmas tree. The lights are on and it's in place.

And Christmas came early for me! I'll take pics and share with you soon.
Stay warm my friends and take time to enjoy the process of getting ready for Christmas.