Life in the White House

Yesterday I had taken the day off. I did not get all that I hoped to done, but I did get a lot done and boy was I glad I'd stayed home! Yesterday it did nothing but SNOW...SNOW...SNOW! We ended up with about 8" in the village...I'm sure mine and Matt's parents probably got closer to a foot of snow. I love it! We might actually have a white Christmas this year. The past few years we've been lucky if we have a slight dusting on the ground. The last time we had a good snow storm on Christmas was a good 6 years ago.

I also got all of the Christmas presents wrapped. I went way over budget: Not for everyone else, but for Matt. We had originally said $150, well the thing he really wanted and the thing I really wanted were double that. So he's getting a muzzle loader (which is a black-powder gun), and while I don't know what I'm getting I have a pretty good idea. 
 
I do think that Christmas in our family (Matt and mine...whenever that may happen) is going to be different. It's not about giving to those who don't need, but to those who DO NEED. I'm seriously thinking that we may just take up a 3 gift policy (baby Jesus only got 3, why should we get more?): 1 gift from Santa and 2 from mom and dad (with only one gift being a "bigger" gift). We're certainly going to make it an obvious point to our children about shopping for those in need...whether through groceries for the food bank or through social services and our church's Adopt a Family Program. There are just so many people who are in such need...I truly believe that those of us who are so richly blessed need to give to those who aren't.
Today has been another productive day: I got up this morning and decided to head right to the store to get the gifts for the kids in the families our church adopts through SS. Backed out of the driveway and BAM! I'm stuck. DANGBURN PLOW TRUCKS! Our driveway isn't bad, but at the end of it there is a large dip between it and the road. Well with the plow trucks pushing it all back there was abou3' of snow there. I drive a Chevy Malibu, it doesn't do snow. Fortunately the old man across the street was outside and he helped me shovel around the car and I was free (Matt's taking cookies over later to thank him for helping me). We have really awesome neighbors!

I did all my shopping and got a lot of cool things: A basketball and hoop, coloring books, and crayons for the little boy; a purse and bath goodies for the teen-girl; diapers/wipes, a blanket, and a cute outfit for the baby. I also got a little something for the parents. Once I got everything wrapped all perty, I headed over to church to drop the gifts, the ham, the potatoes, and the onions off for the families. When I got home the other neighbor (who was our shop teacher in high school) had plowed our driveway (cookies are going over there too).

That's all that's happened today, thus far. Matt had to finish the route today, the snow got too bad yesterday for them to finish, so he should be home soon. Once he is we're hopefully cleaning the house and getting ready for our small party tomorrow (just a handful of friends for appetizers and dessert).

Keep warm!