Wednesday, December 29, 2010

The Grissoms' 2010 Year in Review

January through June 2010
We had an awesome 2010 -- LOTS of outdoor time and time spent as a family.  I've said it before and I'll say it again -- I love that we love to be together.  I decided to look through the past year of posts on my blog and had a great time looking over it all.  I decided to post some pictures for a fun look back - it was hard to whittle it down to even this many pictures...here's hoping our 2011 is just as great!!
July through December

Wednesday, December 22, 2010

Ski Trip

It is Skyler's Christmas break from school.  She already went to work with me for one day (she actually likes it there) but yesterday I took the day off so that her and I could go on our yearly ski trip tradition that we started last year and spend some fun mom/daughter time together.  Last year when I took Skyler to Snowstar, she discovered that she loves to ski and is darn good at it.  So this year, as part of her Christmas present, I took her out again.  (I will say we appeared to be the only girls there in Carhartts and Camo...)

We fly down the big hills -- she has absolutely no fear -- which scares me to death.  I used to be able to convince her to try to slow herself down while skiing, but yesterday all I could see was a little camo girl with her ski poles tucked up under her arms and body tucked to achieve the top speeds possible.  I always saw this from behind because this girl wasn't gonna do that...I guess age has made me more cautious -- I know too much about what can happen if I were to crash.  However, neither of us wiped out all day!  We had a super fun day together and if money were no option I would go with her ten more times this winter!!

Friday, December 17, 2010

Lately...

I haven't had much time to blog lately -- been busy living life and enjoying the Christmas season.  Also had another hunting season (muzzle loader season) last weekend and have been battling a pretty yucky cold for about 2 weeks.  Just to update everyone on a few of the things that have been keeping us busy lately:

Today Skyler had her Christmas party at school.  I got to go and help out and see all of her friends "let loose" on this last "blow day" before their Christmas break.  Skyler admitted they did absolutely nothing educational today -- but had a lot of fun.  Because Skyler's class has a guinea pig -- they needed someone to take care of it over Christmas break...Skyler of course desperately wanted to be the lucky "mom for 2 weeks."  We, along with 10 other parents, gave permission for her name to be put into a hat...and Skyler's name was drawn.  So we now have ANOTHER pet, but this one is only temporary.  I have to admit that "Brownie" is pretty cute.  Skyler and I have already cleaned the cage, put in new nesting material, as well as fed and watered this little thing -- however, the responsibility on this one is all hers...as she would have it no other way.

Skyler also got out of school early -- so I got to spend some extra special time with her.  As part of her Advent Calendar gifts -- today she received a Gingerbread House kit from us.  So we got to try and create it together.  It was a lot of fun and turned out great!

Because of all the show we have had as of late -- when Paul and I aren't busy shoveling out elderly people's driveways (or our own) -- we have gotten to do quite a lot of sledding with Skyler.  Skyler would rather be outside 24/7 -- but sometimes the cold drives even that little hot-blooded girl inside for a bit.  The funny thing is that Shadow also loves to sled.  He grabs onto our shoulders as we are going down and runs with his hind legs behind the sled.  We got some pretty hilarious video of this as well.

We also got to go out to cut down our yearly Christmas tree -- this is such a fun family experience!!  Although usually it takes a lot of bickering (all in fun) and about an hour of trudging through snow and hills to pick out our tree -- this time, we walked only a short way -- immediately we all agreed and it was almost disappointing to find our tree so quickly.  I am quite sure that won't happen again.

Although many will spend hours upon hours shopping for those perfect gifts, even more time wrapping those perfect gifts, hours spent baking goodies and cooking the perfect meal -- Remember that Christmas isn't about presents, it isn't about Christmas trees or cookies, it isn't even about those dreaded family get-togethers that everyone is supposed to enjoy so much...Christmas is about a small child named Jesus who was born long ago in a manger...may we all take longer remembering that than all the time we take focusing on the other "stuff" that doesn't really matter.  MERRY CHRISTMAS!