IT'S AMAZING...I'M SERIOUS!

We awoke to the pitter patter of little feet skipping down the hall this morning. There was a momentary lull in the action before our bedroom door was exuberantly flung open. A rush of warm air blasted in just milliseconds before a braided, fuzzy haired imp effervescently danced in. ,

I managed to pry open one heavy lidded eye in time to find 2 sparkling blue eyes and a wide mouthed, gap toothed smile excitedly bobbing up and down just inches from my face. Avery's loud Bostonian accent pierced through my sleep induced grogginess. Breathlessly, she gleefully exclaimed,

"Mom! Dad! You just HAVVVE to come downstwaiws quick. You HAVVVVE to see something. It's amazing. I'm seaweeus!"

Just what could create such a rousing sense of drama so early on a Sunday morning?

SNOW!

Ah, yes, a full 3cm of the white stuff sparsely blanketing the world is all it took to create a magical moment of wonder for our city slicker kids!

Unfortunately the wonder of it all was relatively short lived.
To the tune of 17 minutes and 24 seconds...and of course it took 3 times that amount of time to get them suitably attired to enjoy their 17 minutes of snow day fun!

17 MINUTES TO ENJOY...

THE WONDER

THE THRILL

THE JOY

THE PAIN

THE REALITY

of frozen fingers, frozen toes and frigid sogginess!

THE DISCOVERY

of the soothing warmth and sugar induced high of hot chocolate!

Wonder of all wonders, today's snow fall coincided with Parker's 9th Birthday!
How divine!



Even with our early morning start, the day fairly flew by. Not surprising at all, when you consider the copious amount of time it took to prepare for snow play, the 17 minutes actually spent playing in the snow, and then the 2.5 hours it took to recover from playing in the snow,

Before we knew it, it was time to bundle up and head out for our boy's special birthday dinner. Parker LOVES Chinese food and so he had asked to go for Chinese food for his birthday dinner. Ironically the city we live in is predominantly Asian however we have yet to find a really good Chinese food restaurant near our home. So, Parker's request meant that we had to pile in the van and drive to a different city - a solid 30 minutes away.

I'm happy to report that the Ocean Palace was well worth the trek. Sojourning with us on our cross city adventure in Chinese cuisine were my folks and our 'extended family' Dick and Tina.



We really had a fantastic evening. We payed homage to the birthday boy. We gorged on lemon chicken, chow mien and fried rice. And, fortunately, we managed to avoid MSG, mystery meat dishes and gooey duck.

And we were duly entertained by Dick and the completely inappropriate contents of his fortune cookie - which he sneakily tried to pawn off on Taylor. And thanks to Taylor, we have some rather interesting photos to remember the evening by.



We capped off our snow day/birthday extravaganza with a hefty helping of holiday trifle - Parker's traditional birthday cake.

Happy Birthday to my Christmas Baby!