Below is an assortment of photos from Christmas in Rochester. Merry Christmas!
Sam's friend Ian: I'm not afraid of anything!
I mentioned that we've been at the receiving end of an unusual lake-effect engine for the last several days. Buffalo has too, in spades--I hear they got a few feet of snow in places, forcing a shutdown of interstate 90. Our friend Barbara, coming back from playing a concert in Erie, PA with the Irish Tenors, was forced by the weather off the throughway, to wander Buffalo "surface roads," not making it home til 2 AM.
The average snowfall in Rochester in December is 20" (compared to 5.4" in Columbus and 7" in Sioux Falls). Since yesterday morning, according to the National Weather Service, we got 4.7", bringing the current total to about 10-12", depending on how close to the lake you look.
It's pretty. And Sam could not be more excited about his snow boots and new gloves. :-)
Despite our large snowfalls, we often are sitting on the sidelines when Columbus and Mitchell get pounded by serious winter storms.
This snowfall has been ideal--not more per day than we can easily handle, and cold enough not to turn to slush. What is the largest storm you've been in which wasn't too dangerous or inconvenient?
Got half a foot of snow yesterday. (Had to run out in the evening to get gas for the snow blower...) It was coming down heavily with a healthy wind in the late afternoon when Sam and I went out to play. You can see him here well bundled up. He wanted to make a snow man. The snow was pretty dry, so we ended up with a snow blob, adorned with coal eyes, stick smile and carrot nose.
Sam's shovel (handle shown here) didn't make it in when we came in and when I went out later it was buried. This is the first forensic evidence to tell me where to dig to find it!
Sara Dill babysat Friday night while we were at small group. (Long-time readers will know the name--she used to be a very regular sitter back when we leaved in The City; now that she can drive, we are hoping that frequency will jump up again.) She has a new MacBook, and spent some quality time taking photos of Sam and her and processing them.
Saturday started with puttering, Sam made some wood bead necklaces with a craft set from Nana & Grandad, and then put all the photos of Sara and him into a book with captions. Sam is very happy when crafting.
After a good post-vacation Monday, it was perhaps inevitable Tuesday wouldn't go easily. To quote Susan this morning,
Sam was visited by the Meltdown Fairy this morning, closely attended by the Elves of Consequences.
Monday morning, bright and early, he excitedly brought up two Lego men and made one into a zombie chasing the other. The one in front originally had a horrified look on his face, but that Lego head has gone missing (and so it begins).
A really good visit! Here are many photos. Some highlights:
Sue reading to Sammy! I will now be looking for books by Arnold Lobel. We'd seen Frog & Toad, but never the Mouse books (such as Mouse Soup). These are the kind of books I will read by myself, even
An amazing Thanksgiving dinner--both food and company
Christmas lights, both at Easton Mall (Columbus' best indoor-outdoor mall--makes Eastview Mall look like the kids' table at Thanksgiving dinner)... and driving around Worthington looking at lawn lights
Victory against Michigan! Woohoo! Many friends are fans of Big Blue, and I am sorry for their tragic seventh loss
...and, frankly, lots of good time with family
We just had the first parent-teacher conference of the year. Among other things, Ms. Mulvaney emphasized his love of drawing and artwork. Just the other day, for instance, he sat focused intently for 2.5 hours drawing and making up narratives to accompany his drawings. She says She's never seen a student with this sort of artistic creativity this young--it's usually 6 or 7.
And we've really been enjoying what he's come up with. Wednesday night Sam and I just sat and drew robots for a long time. Tonight he has a babysitter coming with a book on how to draw superheroes. You can imagine how excited he is. :-)
The second... I am not sure what the ears/wings are on top. But the different "levels" are God's world, the plant world, the people world and the bubble world. At first I thought the flame in God's world was like the burning bush, which he's recently learned about again in Sunday school. Nope, God is wearing a cape! Unexpected.
Sam turned five last Sunday. The party is a big deal to him, as you would expect. And these days kids are having big parties at facilities with huge inflated slides and other bouncy equipment. (The facilities provide a cake and pizza for the kids after they run around like maniacs for an hour.)
We wanted to have a simpler (and cheaper) party at home, and thanks to Susan's hard work, it went very well. The biggest expense was probably the Scooby-Doo cake (the S. D. pinata, bought at a low-price party store, was a lot cheaper!). It was nice to be able to give Sam some birthday cake, since birthday cakes are never safe for him, so for every party he goes to Susan makes a cupcake or two for him to have which is safe.
Nine friends showed up with about half the many parents. The weather was nice, so they ran around outside for an hour first, and had a great time. The highlight for Sam was a game Susan led them in, where they were blindfolded, given a wooden spoon, and told to crawl around on their hands and knees to find, and bang on, an up-turned stock pot with a treat bag inside. The really enjoyed this. Susan also led them in Simon Says, putting little candy decorations on their pieces of cake.
A simple and straightforward party and a good time was had by all. :-)
Sam has rediscovered his camera, the one Aunt Ruth and Uncle Paul gave him over a year ago.
He took well over 380 photos yesterday, voraciously swallowing every view however humble.
Here are some of them. It's fun see what Sam sees.
His venture into photographic art wasn't without its ups and downs. He happened, in the late afternoon, to see a white-tailed deer in a lawn across the street, but was unable to get a shot off in time. So it was all the more exciting when, this morning, on the way in to school, we happened upon a buck. I rolled down the window quickly and there was time for a couple of shots. We'll see if any of them comes out.
Last night Sam came to Susan, crying. When she asked why, he said he had to delete some photos, so he deleted all his nature shots; he was stricken at the loss. Susan said he could take more today.
Birthday party tomorrow afternoon. We have a little more shopping to do and lots of cleaning, and we have to plan some party games. The party will be at our place. 
We have a Scooby-head pinata (from Factory Card Outlet, a great place for the frugal partier), and in a coup Susan secured a peanut-safe (we hope) Scooby-Doo cake from the Little Bakery, who do a great job. What fun!
Sam: What did the monkey say to the banana?
I was glad to be back on Thursday after most of a week away. When, on Wednesday, Terra asked Sam if he missed me, Sam said, "No, we skyped."
Have a good weekend!
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