Yikes! A Snowstorm

Snow flakes had started falling during the Wreaths Across America ceremony and, by the time we drove home, the roads were getting a little icey and we slid a few times in David's car. We exchanged his car for mine and then headed out on what would become quite the journey to pick up Xander and Ashlyn from the Cincinnati airport. The roads were already getting pretty bad so we kept it slow. About a mile or so from the freeway entrance, my low tire pressure light came on. Ugh! Thank goodness there's a gas station near the entrance so we stopped there first to make sure all tires were good to go. Poor Xander and Ashlyn had to wait a little while at the airport because it was a slow drive for us. Thank goodness as we got closer to Cincinnati the roads started to improve! What a fun reunion to see these two!!

The drive home was quite the experience. As mentioned, the roads around Cincinnati were absolutely fine; I'm sure they did lots of prepping for the storm. But the further north we started to go, the roads got worse and worse. We saw many cars slip and slide all over the road. One guy even spun all the way around and then slid through several lanes and almost hit a semi. Thank goodness my car seemed to be handling the conditions pretty well.

Ashlyn and I hung out in the back, trying not to freak out!

And then came the moment when David decided to try and clear off the windshield wiper, rolled down the window, grabbed it...and it broke off! So now we were without a windshield wiper on his side with heavily falling snow. Eventually he was having such a hard time seeing that we were forced to get off and try and find an open auto store to get a new one. Once again, roads were horrible and parking lots had not been plowed. Heavenly Father was watching over us, though, and miracle of miracles, we found a store that was actually open and we got what we needed.

The final stretch!

It took us over two hours to get home but we made it! It was one of the most harrowing drives I've ever been on! It was so nice to be home at last! I just can't resist this little snow face Cleo!

And to have our Xander home for the next three weeks is absolutely the best!

The night time snow looked absolutely beautiful, almost as if little sparkling diamonds were scattered on the top!

The next morning it was time to dig out! We got about a foot of snow!

We've become quite the snow shoveling team!

We let Xander sleep in and veg for the day, ha ha!

Wreaths Across America

A major snowstorm was headed our way but we didn't let that stop us from heading up to the Dayton National Cemetery for what has become a favorite Christmas time tradition - Wreaths Across America. Wow, was it cold! The flakes started coming down right at the start of the ceremony but I was thrilled at how many people still showed up for this very special and sacred event.

They always keep the ceremony pretty short and then we headed out to one of the areas of the cemetery to lay some wreaths!

I love how we get to say their name out loud and thank them for their service before laying the wreath. It always brings on the tears!

The cemetery looked beautiful with all the wreaths and the falling snow.

The walk back to the car was long and freezing with the snow blowing right into our faces. Heaters in cars are an amazing blessing! We definitely had to thaw out, especially David who had little patches of ice on his face.

Our Fun December

With the busyness of November, our November History Book Club meeting had to be moved to the first week of December. We learned all about the female spies!

We got to see the beautiful Ciara dance at her Christmas performance.

I have had the Bolivian restaurant Nelly's on my to try list since we moved here and we finally did! It was delicious!

The ward Christmas party!

I LOVE subbing, especially when I get some of my favorites in class which obviously includes Kellan.

My sweet Cleo.

Classics Book Club - The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe. I actually read the whole series since it's been awhile. So good!

One of my favorite students, Kendall, invited me to her dance performance during half time at the Springboro basketball game.

Snow

Although it wasn't the first snow of the season, it was the first major amount of snow and for us in Ohio, it came pretty early. We usually get snow in January or February, and here it was, only the 2nd of December.

Without boys at home to help shovel, I am now David's snow shoveling buddy.

And Cleo loves to join us!

We decided it was the perfect evening to go see a movie and ended up having the theater to ourselves.