Oh the adventures of Christmas

One of the first things that happened when I got home was that it snowed for about two days straight.  Not the little flakes that barely cover the ground.  No, the big flakes that left more snow in one storm that I remember since I was about 9-years-old.  The school district called a snow day, so the kids had an extra day of vacation with us.  I only remember one other time when school was closed, and that was because it was too cold for the buses to start.  Then there was one day in college when we got 20 inches of snow overnight.  So, twice in my lifetime, and this is the third.  It was a momentous occasion.  Here's some pics:

Front yard

The tree in the front yard

My car and Herschel (who's 6'3")

Caroline on the deck in bare feet.  She always was a little weird.

The dog Scruffy had to jump out of the snow to get anywhere because when standing up, she barely was taller than the snow levels.

This probably isn't the best picture of her.

She was always a good fetcher...even in the snow.

We knocked the snow off trees, swung on the swings, which were lower than the snow level, made snow angels, and had a snowball fight.  It was excellent.  Strangely, it then rained for two days so most of the snow disappeared.  

Heather and I took our youngest brothers and sister horseback riding in the snow and mud.  It maybe was a bad day to do it because it was so darn wet, but they had fun.  

Heather and Andrew on Blaze

Elmina without a coat or gloves...wonder why she got cold.

Me and Elmina on April

I took my Wii home to that people could play it.  Dad even got in on it.  I don't think he's every played any kind of video game at all.

Dad and Henry

 The Clinger family Christmas Eve Party was a huge hit as always.  More people participated in the program which made it really nice, and the food is always killer!

Edith, Elmina, and Heather singing, "I Want a Hippopotamus for Christmas"

Cordell and Joseph and cousin Ellie as Mary

Most of the kids that were in the Nativity

So you never quite know what will happen at the Clinger house on Christmas.  When I was about 8 or 9-years-old, we had three cows that needed assistance giving birth on Christmas morning (yes, I helped do that kind of stuff).  We had to help them for so long that when we got in the house it was time to go to Grandmas' houses.  We opened presents that night when we got home.  Life on the farm always kept things interesting.  We were opening presents this Christmas morning, and we hadn't got through one round of us, when Andrew starts screaming.  I look over, and he's got a bloody hand.  I laughed internally.  We got the bleeding stopped and then realized he needed stitches.  So, Mom, Dad, and Andrew drove the 30 minutes to the hospital, got stitched up and came back.  When we were taking them out to the car, we noticed a heifer that was out.  So, we proceeded to put her back in the corral.  But, just like when we were little, we didn't get officially dressed.  Edith and Herschel were out there in shorts.

Cordell and the heifer

Matt and Edith

Herschel--not even in boots!

For the three hours of Christmas/hospital interruption, we watched a movie and started a puzzle.  Thank goodness someone opened a movie in the first round! 

Elmina wanted to eat under the table.  I think she wanted to be close to all those unopened presents.

Heather, Cordell, Herschel, Melinda, and Edith

Heather and Caroline starting the puzzle

After Andrew got back, we opened presents and had a great afternoon just chilling at home. 

A couple days later the fog and the frost was so pretty I had to take a picture.

I decided I miss the cherry orchards

For the rest of my vacation, I saw lots of good friends, finished the puzzle, played games with the family, and it was great! 

Henry, Elmina, Andrew, Caroline, Matt, and Heather

Edith, Elmina, and Heather at lunch

Caroline, Mom, Edith, Elmina, Heather, and me.  Don't worry, it was a "weird" picture.

The finished turtle puzzle