The weather outside was frightful...

Like Ben said, we had some very wintery weather last weekend which was perfect because we had some things to get done inside the house, like cleaning :).  We also have spent a good amount of time Christmasing!

The decorations are up!

I realized I don't have as many Christmas decorations as I thought, but I love the ones I do have!  We opted for a fake tree this year, but in the future you can count on a real tree we cut by ourselves (or at least pick out of a tree lot).

We have enjoyed lots of delicious treats!

Homemade Toffee and Candy Cane Divinity

The Relief Society has a cooking group and December's activity was a cookie exchange.  It was okay and my cookies were awesome (shortbread with chocolate drizzles and candy cane sprinkles), but it was a little bit of a let down to come home with plain old chocolate chip cookies and plain oatmeal cookies.  Oh well!  We also have been eating super awesome dinners, which might end up in a future blog (recipes included).

Christmas crafts have overflowed my craft desk!

A super cute ruffled shirt and some paper ornaments

I finished off two projects on Saturday (can't put some pictures up quite yet), and have worked on some ornaments that we did as the traditional Thanksgiving craft.  Though I haven't gotten Christmas cards or stockings made, I feel good that I was able to manage the things I did get done.

And, lastly, I spent a few days sick in bed.  It was miserable, but I got over it by Monday to go back to work and then got a cold that Tuesday.  Hopefully, that's it for the season :)

We hope you've been enjoying the Christmas time as much as we have!

SNOW!!!

Yesterday and today the State of MN told everyone to stay home because of an alien invasion!

Just kidding! Actually it was because of all the SNOW!!

In less than 24 hours we got about 16 inches of snow, and several feet of drifts. The winds are still whipping stuff around, and the high today was only 8 degrees Fahrenheit. . . . the low tonight will be -10 !

With the snow and extreme cold and wind-chills, they cancelled church and about everything else these last two days (including exams yesterday!).

So what did Joanna and I do at home this whole time?? Wrap presents, clean the house, cook Parmesan Patties and Pasta Gardena, and black bean and cheese enchiladas, and toffee, and Divinity, and watch church films, and other movies, and listen to the radio, and make Christmas cards, etc. etc. . .

Here is Ben wrapping like Tupac.

Here is Joanna wrapping like Willow Smith.

(Notice how she's whipping her hair back and forth. . . )

We got a little bit of cabin-fever today, so around noon we ventured outside to take a look at the snow. Here are some pictures!

Joanna coming out of our apartment . . . into the valley of snow.

Joanna showing us how the snow is almost up to that mailbox. There is a walk-way under there somewhere.

We were going to walk on the sidewalk, but all we found was about 30 inches of snow and a plowed road with cars pretending to drive on it (they were actually sliding. . . ).

 

Here I am showing the snow height. It comes up to my waist, so that means this drift was about 46 feet high.

Here is Joanna in the fields by our house. She and the snow are pretty! . . .Pretty COLD!

(Actually, we were very warm by this time.)

Me standing in the same field - with snow up to my knees.

Our tracks in the snow. Can you tell whose tracks are whose?

Joanna making a snow angel!! It wasn't that hard for her to be angelic!

There was sooo much snooow that the roof of the Metrodome (where the Vikings play) collapsed! There was so much snow that it came about 1/4 the way up our windows!! That's a lot of snow!!

Our bedroom window - with snow banging on the window trying to get in.

Don't worry, Joanna and I were nice and warm in our several layers. . . .

Here are our layers taking a break and being lazy on the floor.

Well, back to studying!

- Ben

Santa Ben

The other day we talked to Afton for a little bit.  Santa Ben made a visit to the web cam and talked to Afton a little bit.  When asked what she wanted, Afton said toys!  Santa ben also asked if Afton had been a good girl this year.  She simply said, "No."  We all had a laugh and Tracy said that she was at least being honest.

I love this time of year!  Merry Christmas!