Benjamin and Janae's Day Off

 

In our part of the country, it is not unusual to have a rainy December, a green Christmas, and even an only slightly chilly New Year's.

It's always exciting when we see a little snow, even if it is not until the middle of January.

 

We will often get just enough to justify pulling out the gloves and hats to make a snowman, even if we can still see the grass poking through.

 

But once in a while we get a REAL snowfall. One that fills up the yard, makes the roads icy, gets Grandpa reminiscing about Finland, and--best of all--keeps the school buses from running.

 

This is what happened Monday night . . . which led to a day off of school!

 

Ben was happy.

 

Janae was happy.

 

And a day off of school for Ben and Janae means a day off of riding in the car for Alaina.

She was pretty happy, too :)

 

After playing for a while in our backyard, we decided to take a walk down the road to Grandma and Grandpa's (Jason has a few days off, too, since not much landscaping can be done under this many inches of snow!)

 

(watching the big TV seemed to be an essential part of Ben and Janae's day-off festivities!),

 

then we did what everyone else was doing--we found a hill to slide down and kept sliding until we could no longer feel our faces.

 

(This was not before Ben had discovered his hidden talent for "belly whopping," though!)

 

Grandma even sent us home with a packet of left-over Christmas dinner that she had skillfully frozen in such a way that it tasted as good as the original.

I was tempted to put the tree back up--and probably would have, too, if it wasn't so much work.

It really is beginning to look a lot like Christmas . . .

and it is so nice to have a day off :)

(Just ask Ben and Janae!)