A Play, A Blizzard, and an Elf

And so, last weekend's fun continues. You may remember that we've already gone to a parade, watched fireworks, eaten pancakes, and visited Santa ... which brings us to lunchtime on Saturday. Need a nap? No time for that ... because we had play tickets to see Winnie-the-Pooh at the Old Log Theater in Excelsior.

Since our breakfast had been so late, no one was particularly hungry at our normal lunchtime. Instead, we grabbed snack bags of animal crackers and headed up to the theater. It's one that Mike has been anxious to see, since the same man who built the theater he works at also built Old Log. We got there early (I know ... early. So confusing), so the kids made friends with some of the ushers. It was the children's show, so there were lots of families, booster seats for the chairs (hooray!), and a show that was only an hour long. That's a winning combination in our world.

We got to our seats, and one-by-one the kids decided they needed a booster, so we were eventually settled just before the show started. It was really cute and very musical. Fiona sat enthralled for most of it, Quinn curled up in a ball because she was so tired but happily watched it, and Dec rotated between Mike's lap and standing up. However, he was not standing because he wasn't interested ... quite the contrary. He was so into the show that he simply could not sit down. He was on his tiptoes every time he stood up - just to be closer to the action. At the end of the show, the actors came out to the lobby and signed the kids' playbills. They loved meeting them and did a nice job of waiting their turn to meet each character. 

By this point, "not particularly hungry" had morphed into "very hungry" for all five Vannestes. We decided to stop at the Wendy's that was just down the road for a 3pm lunch. As we walked to our car, a few snowflakes were starting to fall. Ten minutes later, when we got to Wendy's, the snow was coming down quite hard. We decided that everyone was too hungry and stopped anyways. 

We all pounded our food (we may have only left a crumb that was too small for a mouse), sang Christmas songs, and watched the snow coming down. Then we mentally prepared everyone for what was likely to be a loooong slog home. As I was buckling the kids in, the wind blew so hard that it slammed the car door on my legs. That was my clue that it was going to be an interesting ride.

When we got out to the road, we found that it was pretty much glare ice. Mike had decided to not take the freeway home and to take more of the back roads. I was totally on board, except for one very steep, very windy, very narrow hill that was on that route. Turns out, I needn't worry - they had closed that road! So we detoured our detour and made it home safely. It was a slow drive, but also so so pretty. The snow was perfect and all the trees along the route were blanketed, which is our very favorite thing.

As soon as we got home, the kids geared up to see if it was good snowman snow. It was!!! Mike and the kids made a frosty friend for the front yard while I worked on Christmas decorations inside. I even had a carrot leftover from Thanksgiving and found some stale cookies for eyes and buttons (that the woodland creatures seem to have appreciated). 

When they came in, we decorated our tree. It's in the living room this year (it's been in the basement for the last few) and we are all enjoying having it up here. It required a lot of furniture rearranging, but the ability to see it every night - especially when watching Christmas movies - is totally worth it!

It was a good thing we got our house ready on Saturday, because on Sunday morning, the kids discovered that our elf, Tyler, had returned - bringing with him a North Pole breakfast, notes from Santa, and matching Christmas jammies. 

We filled the rest of our day with Sunday school, church choir practice, hockey practice, fort building with the neighbor kids, decorating the basement, and watching part of The Grinch (Jim Carrey version).

When I recapped our weekend on Monday to my friend Kim, she said "I would not survive at your house." It's just my secret way to make a non-runner like Mike a true marathoner. Who needs to run 26.2 miles?!?! Just hang with us for a weekend.