December 2016

December was a month of impressive snow.

 You'd think a city like Billings would know what to do with snow, but they don't have it figured out yet.  Here I am, driving down a slickery road, taking pictures. Billings loves to plow all of the snow into the center of the road. The cleared road is never cleared, just scraped down to its icy bottom. After that berm of snow has been sitting there for a week or more, they will come back and haul it away.  They schedule the pick-up for the snow berm in front of the elementary school for 2:30, the time the younger grades get out, and finish up around 3:30, after the older grades are out. It's great- you park your car five blocks away, trudge through the waist-deep snow to pick up your child, then trudge back to your car, being careful not to be hit by the snow truck or the flying snow. 

Having the snow berm in the middle of the road means you cannot turn across the street to get to your house. Unless you want to get seriously stuck and involve your neighbors again in your rescue. It's faster to drive to the nearest intersection, flip a U-ey, and drive back to your house.

 Also, the city doesn't plow residential roads, just the main ones. After a week or two, it's extremely challenging to get out of your own driveway and off of your own road. One of our neighbors spent a day plowing all of our driveways and our street with a snow blade on his truck.  Turns out that's illegal, but no one told one him. We probably will throw him a party.

The worst part is the almost daily need to head out in the biting cold to shovel the latest pile of  white stuff. Lucky Stan also gets to go shovel out our rental.

December was wicked month, even for Billings. We ended up with a record-breaking 30" of snow.

We remained nearly housebound, making gingerbread houses.

I got a few pictures of the making, but can't find the picture I know I took of the final product.

I do love these easy-peasy Costco gingerbread houses.

We made sure to get plenty of winter chocolate, digging into our advent calendar. Every grandchild over the age of one or two gets one. I guess that makes me personally reasonable for the year's cavities.

We made some cute Christmas decorations. 

We set up Dad's house for the annual Christmas party.

We attended the ward Christmas party. This is the Primary's part, with Hailey and Makayla on the far right, dressed as angels. Perfect casting, don't you think?

Santa came to the church so that Amy could take this snapchat.

Hailey, practicing her viola for the upcoming program.

Fifth grade orchestra is like, well......

Makayla says it best in Amy's snapchat.

We headed to Dad's house for the yearly December 23rd party. I hope when I'm 90 years old like Dad I'll be up for a houseful of party people. The hat game must be played.

 Come on, Amy! You can do it!

There's Makayla, in her final moments before being eliminated. Don't worry, Makayla, there's always next year!

Of course, Santa stopped by to see if everyone was still behaving since the ward party. 

 Look at that sweet face! I think Hailey has Santa convinced.  We bought Hailey's pants at Target a few weeks ago and she pretty much wore them everyday for two months.

The next night, December 24th, we had our traditional Hawaiian Haystack dinner

This is my favorite day of the year. After dinner we did a service project for Tumbleweed, putting together supplies for homeless teens.

Afterwards we played "Watch Ya' Mouth".

You put in this cute mouth guard, then try to get your partner to say the phrase on a card you pick before time runs out.

It was pretty fun,

but I probably won't need to play it again in this life. 

Christmas was on Sunday this year, so we had a speedy Christmas morning. Of course, we had our traditional breakfast of Wheat Waffles, Coconut Syrup, strawberries and whip cream, bacon, sausage, chocolate milk, 

Then we opened presents.

Super fast.

 Christmas is so much more fun with kids around.

 Hailey is really into patterned leggings right now.

 Oh look! It's a karaoke machine from Mom! That won't be annoying at all!

Makayla had been begging me for Hatchimal.  I had never heard of them, but happened upon them in the sale aisle a few months before Christmas, so I bought one. Imagine my surprise when people were paying $200+ on Amazon and ebay.  It's a testament to my love for Makayla that I gave it to her instead of making $170 profit. That's quite the Song of Joy, Mak.

Did you spot our gorgeous Christmas tree in its usual place in the corner? Yeah, me neither. Stan's shoulder surgery meant he couldn't drag the tree out of the basement. I used that as an excuse to take the year off of Christmas decorating. It was glorious.

Hailey, who is pining for a golden retriever, is going to have to settle on a robot dog for now.

Makayla gave me this lovely pin for Christmas.  Stan got the I heart Grandma version.

The reason I was so reluctant to spend time putting up trees and holiday decor is because I made too many quilts this year, falling further behind with each one.  This is the one for Makayla's 8th birthday that I finally finished in early December, and then quickly moved on to Ruby's.

After Christmas, we headed for a day at the mall to use our Build-a-Bear coupon and hit the after Christmas sales.

 I'm sure Amy would happily tell you these two do not have enough stuffed animals.

No she wouldn't.  

 I am hoping she doesn't notice two more have joined the menagerie. 

 Of course, we started our post-Christmas goal of healthier eating.

Just not today.

We found plenty of bargains.

It seems silly to pay pre-Christmas prices when you can wait a week and get the same merchandise for half the price.

 We did necessary things like whack a foot off of Hailey's hair.  I try hard not to covet this girl's hair, but I seldom succeed.

We did some riding, Montana style.

When we finally got home, Makayla modeled her new animal and bargain outfit. I think we've had enough fun (and spent enought money) for awhile. 

December has been not only snowy, it's been soo cold.

Our December ended with a indoor waterfall when a pipe broke at the 4-plex, necessitating a hole in the ceiling to repair the pipe and add insulation.  I don't understand how the pipes made it 40 years without bursting. The insulation in this rental is virtually non-existent and we've had colder winters. Thank goodness Stan is handy enough to fix things. We actually called in two different repairmen to fix the problem because of Stan's bum shoulder, and neither of them could figure out how to defrost the frozen pipe and replace it. Finally, Stan did it himself. Geesh.