Holiday fun

Gingerbread house anyone? With Christmas right around the corner the Porter house in San Diego is getting more and more company with each passing day. For the first time ever, I think, we changed locations for the holiday festivities. We all decided we could use some warmer weather and wanted to avoid all the Utah snow so Craig and Laura's house was the perfect location. Holly arrived last week and I (Brooke) got here on Sunday. Everyone else is getting in tomorrow morning so then we'll really have a packed house!

Not having everyone here the past couple of days has been nice for me to get some one-on-one time with the kids. Justin, Madi, Ally, and Nate are all super fun kids who make me laugh every day. We have been busy making an obstacle course in the family room with the furniture (shh . . . Craig isn't supposed to know), singing songs, dancing while singing, laughing so hard from our dancing we're crying, watching movies, making muddy buddies and the most blessed event . . . decorating the gingerbread house!!!

Ally and Madison were incharge of the main house. They were stuggling a bit with the roof line not caving in but they did a great job! They worked really well together and had the whole color pattern thing working out.

The frosting was being a little pain. First too thick, then too thin. Brooke just couldn't seem to get it right. We worked really hard and a few knives and fingers later, we had ourselves a beautiful house!!!

Nathan was incharge of decorating all the "accessories" aka tree, gingerbread man x 2, and the chimney. He had so much fun and did an awesome job!

Check out those cute kids! We only had a few minor things broken and miraculously, we all got along and worked well together! Oh, and we even had some extra icing left over which just HAD to be eaten! Happy Holidays from San Diego!!!

The lameness continues . . .

As you can see St. George got a HUGE blizzard thrown their way on Wednesday night and Thursday morning. I think by the end of it we got a whoppin' 2 inches on the ground! Wednesday night (with nothing coming down outside, mind you) I got a phone call from my principal letting me know school was canceled for the next day. Are you freakin' kidding me?!?!?!?!?! He assured me it was NOT a joke and that because of all the snow we couldn't have school. I just sat there, stunned. As a kid we would go out to recess with FEET of snow on the ground. I just couldn't believe it. So yesterday we had a snow day. Except by noon there wasn't one flake of snow on the ground so how can it really be called that? Some teachers were so excited to have a day off but I was ticked! You see, over the break students seem to get amnesia and "forget" EVERYTHING we have done over the last few months. We needed to finish up a math chapter and take a test on it not to mention finish up our long-processed, home-made Christmas presents including the much anticipated event of wrapping and using the "way fun and cool" curly ribbon! Without school how could that be done? It took me only a few minutes to get over the whole "I'm freaking out because there isn't enough time to get everything done" attitude and I sat back and put in a movie. I ended up sleeping in, cleaning my house, cooked, wrapped presents, went shopping, and synched songs onto my iPod. Looking back on it that was the best snow day I've ever had! Too bad we have to make that day up at the end of the school year. It's going to make for a VERY long month of May.

Are you SERIOUS????

I had to use this yesterday, twice! And again this morning. What is going on? Two days ago it was in the high 50's and the next thing we knew we had a "blizzard" going on outside. The people here in St. George remind me of the people in the jungles of Bolivia. A "cold front" would come in (where it would get down to 95 degrees and only 85% humidity) every few months or so and you would think they were all going to freeze to death. I'm talking warm coats, shoes & socks, gloves & hats and they would sit around the fire for hours. All while the missionaries actually put on normal shoes instead of flip flops. We were loving life but still had to take 3 showers daily. So back to these awesome acclimatized people down here. They freak out! The parents freak out because they have to drive in it and come pick up their kids because, heaven forbid, they actually walk home in it. And then there's the kids . . . Anyone who has kids or is ever around kids know how excited they can get when there is snow involved. Especially when it only snows like twice a year here and then it only stays for a few hours afterwards. So picture this with me, if you will. You let your students in the door on a cold, overcast morning. They work great (usually overcast = calmness . . . me like!) for the first hour or so until low and behold a student discovers it's snowing outside and HAS to announce it to the class. The thing is, I don't think the kid could even help himself. It HAD to be done. It's not like he can just sit there quietly working on his assignment. Oh no! It is physically impossible for him to pretend that there are perfectly white flakes falling from the sky. The announcement is made and there goes my morning. Gees, thanks a lot weather man! Forget math and writing and science . . . until . . . I become a genius! Yes! That's right my friends, I became a GENIUS! Although some may say I have always been a genius, for arguments sake lets just say at that moment I officially became a genius. What happened you may ask? Well, for "math" we talked about how if we had a snowball that had 2,584 flakes in it and we wanted to make a snowman, how many flakes would each ball need (aka long division). Then we threw in how the sizes of each ball needed to be "similar" not "congruent" (aka geometry) and wha - la we had ourselves math! In writing we wrote a story from the point of view of the snowman, using as many descriptive words as possible. You should hear some of these, they're quite good! And for science . . . we just happened to be talking about classification of animals and plants in Utah so I kind of changed it up a bit and we classified things we'd need to wear if we went outside to play. Worked like a charm AND they even learned something in the process. And they say it can't be done!!! So, back to the whole point of this entry, the snow! One word for all of you . . . EEWW!!! For those of you who have no snow, consider yourself lucky. For those of you who have tons of it at home right now and are rolling your eyes at this, I'm glad it's you and not me. Hey, I grew up in the stuff so I know what it's like.

P.S. Word on the street is that one school in our district had school get cancelled today. Yep, they got a whole 15 inches last night so it's "IMPOSSIBLE" to get there. Psh, whatever. When I was in elementary school I had to walk uphill both ways . . . barefoot . . . in the snow . . . that a dog had peed in . . .only seconds before . . . as warm cars whizzed by splashing the gross "snow juice" all over me. Aww, to be a kid again!

Remember this?

Check out these beauties! Just a trip down memory lane. Go back four years around Christmas time, if you will. We had all just gone ice skating and visited our local golden arches afterwards. Adam and Brooke just couldn't resist . . .

Just another example of the REAL nerd inside us all!!!

Merry Christmas in Virginia

WARNING: If you don't want to know what the other grandkids are about to get from grandma and grandpa for Christmas this year DO NOT read this entry! I'm not kidding, this contains VERY sensitive information!!!

Jeff was able to go home to Virginia to visit Tiffany and the kids for the past few weeks. His arrival was delayed a little bit (we love the military STRICT schedule - right!) but he got there and the looks of things they all had a great time. He just headed back this past weekend and it was hard for everyone to say goodbye. Before he left, however, they were able to decorate for Christmas and even open up presents from our side of the family. Above you can see some fun pictures of all the festivities. My favorite picture? The one with Ryan in his Spiderman pajamas shooting his spider web at the camera. I think they were a big hit grandma! I'm glad Jeff was able to be with his family during this time. Break a leg buddy over there in Afghanistan! Be safe, be smart, and DBAP!! We love you and will talk to you and your family on Christmas!!