Christmas Decorations and Winter Woolies

As I mentioned before, we thought we would be in our new house this winter. Well, it didn't work out that way. I carefully packed everything and boxed up all the excess. I made sure to put the things I would need for the winter season near the front of the storage room.

Then my son, my helpful 17 year old son, who was trying to create a nook for himself in that icy cold garage, packed each and every box so tightly that there was not an inch to spare in that garage, minus the 6 x 6 square he carved out for his weights and playstation.

Did I fail to mention that in the course of his restructuring he put my winter stuff so far away that I have no clue where it all is? Well he did. That and my Christmas decorations. We made do with decorations. Actually, we probably had a prettier tree than I have seen in a while. It had popcorn rings, and home made decorations made from To and From tags covered in glitter, and toilet paper tubes that were cut up into rings and then covered with oodles of glitter glue to resemble the three wise men's crowns. And to top it off we hung miniature candy canes and tinsel. It truly was a pretty tree!

The children had so much fun making the decorations that I promised them they could decorate their own trees next year! It was a worthwhile craft. I just left out the glitter, glitter glue, stickers, cardboard, paper, scissors, ribbon, and they came and went when they wanted. Everyone got in on it, even the big guys.

 My very kind hubby delivered the tree that he cut down from our land, and then delivered a case of Coke. He knows that we have not been spending a penny we don't need to and buying a luxury like Coke for my relaxation drink (grin) was not on the budget. He very kindly played out a Coca-Cola commercial by making it the first present under the tree! (grin)

Our Pretty Decorations

They are hard to see because of the camera flash, but they truly were pretty with their white paper and red ribbons, and then all the white popcorn. Cassidy popcorn 1.5 cups of kernels to make this small amount of chains. Could it have been because for every one he strung, he ate ten? Hmmm

Anyways, back to the Winter Woolies.

SO my children had no snow clothes. With a little digging we found the snow pants. There were a few pairs of boots found, but not everyone's....

With a little cajoling, Briton was willing to wear the girls' old boots. He now doesn't notice the pink pom-poms on the pink strings. Mind you, I won't take him skiing til we find all the gear. I wouldn't do that to my boy! lol

And when I looked outside at our first bit of snow to see my dear children in all their makeshift woolies, this is what I saw. How priceless is this...

 Old snow pants that are about six inches too short, plus Dad's old work boots.

 

It didn't stop them from having fun!

Each day that Ray goes to the jobsite he takes a few more boxes. Bit by bit, we are finding the things we need. Hopefully before we begin skiing in January (thank you, homeschooling credits!) we will have found it all. In the meantime, they really aren't cold, so please don't worry. They do have many thick winter sweater jackets, and are making out just fine. *smile*

Update: Since I wrote this post we have located the snow gear, or at least almost all of it. Thankfully, before the deep snow arrived, and just in time for Cassidy to go skiing this week!
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Raine's First Day

Because I ended up going for an extra time this season, I decided to take Raine. I was pretty sure I could handle a new skier, as well as Briton.

Well, I quickly learned *that* was a mistake!!! I took Raine to the bunny hill and we did a quick lesson. The same as I did with Briton. The bunny hill wasn't challenging enough to get a handle on learning to ski there. As the instructors say, most parents end up taking their kids up the mountain to the easy slopes to teach them there. I did this with Briton, and I figured I would do the same with Raine.

Big mistake.

Not because of Raine, but because I had two little ones. I am *so* glad I waited on bringing three beginners to the hill! If I could afford a nanny to watch them on the bunny hill for the day that would be fine, but Briton was too little to leave by himself, so he got taken up the hill really quickly. In doing so, he learned fast. When I took the two kids up the hill I saw how difficult it would be.

We did manage to get on and off the lift with the liftee slowing it down for me. My error in bringing two up the hill showed its face when we headed for an easy hill. I am always with Briton and this time, he miunderstood and went down, while I went across a hill. He figured I was taking Hill A, and I was heading to Hill B. He was only about 20 feet from me, but it panicked him, so he began to cry. Thankfully, right away a ski patrol lady showed up (timing!) and helped him back up to the hill where I was at, and we proceeded on together.

The bigger boys skied ahead of us and Raine, Briton and I carried on. I have since learned about girls' bodies. The instructor told me this - that they are built differently to boys' bodies, in the muscular way, so they handle learning to ski differently. Now, don't shoot me for saying this, I am simply saying what I was told, and judging from watching Raine float on the snow, rather than dig down as the boys all did right away, I think there might be something to it. I had to really teach her how to press into the snow because her skies controlled her and dragged where she didn't want to go. She was also ever so gangly on skies. *grin* Now this really surprised me because she had shown herself to be very gifted in hula, soccer, good at running and strong at gymnastics.

There was one moment on the hill where I knew I wouldn't be bringing two up the hill again, unless two could ski independently. I had Raine right beside me and we were creeping along, and Briton had skied about 30 feet in front of me. All of a sudden, Raine fell, and she was struggling to get up, and then I heard this odd sound, and heard Briton screaming. Not once, but multiple screams. Not like him at all! I have my head swinging back and forth, telling Raine to, Get up! We have to go get Briton. He's in danger! I then was swinging it to the other side looking toward where Briton was a moment ago, but now is no longer. I realize my big mistake in bringing two up the hill.

Finally, I told Raine to crawl forward along the trail, and I would ski to Briton, get him, and come back. I dashed off and as I heard his screaming, I am thinking he must have skied off a cliff or have met an animal or something scary! I was panicking.

Then I came around the corner and saw him.

He was sitting in the middle of the ski road nearly at the intersection of a downhill part. There was forest on two sides of him. He was sitting there crying and screaming.

I was furious. WHAT was he doing screaming blue murder when apparently nothing was wrong? I do not have screeching bratty children, but by now I was worn totally out, and had no patience for a child screaming for apparently no reason other than the fact that I was too far behind him.

I called him to me and stood there with Raine in my eyeshot on right and Briton in eyesight on my left. I couldn't get both of them, so I stood there and called them to both come to me as fast as they could. I know they were both okay, but now, we just needed to get off the mountain and let Raine continue her day on the bunny hill. So much for my ambitious thoughts!

Heading Towards Me From the Right

And From My Left

When Briton arrived at me I asked him what on earth was going on. He was still crying. He said, "Me hear noise. NEEOOOWW, NEEOOOWW" He had this terrified look on his face.

I asked him what he meant. He told me while he was waiting for me (quietly!) he had heard this horrible noise. He showed me again the sound and it freaked me out. I had my suspicions. He said he had then begun screaming to me, "Mummy come now. Me scared!" I gave him hugs and reassured him.

We then headed down the hill together with Briton having the explicit instructions to not go more than five feet in front of me. Raine did *fabulous* on the bigger hill, where she had room to go to the left or right without going off the side of the path. She had learned to get up and down without problem, put her skies back on when they fell off, slow down, and snowplow.


She was so happy to hear when I told her that I could see her pushing down and her making powder trails in her snow plow. I could see that she was getting it. It won't take her long to be up the hill again!

To give you an idea of how we did: the hill should take 10 minutes to get down; Briton took about 1 hour; Raine took 1 hour 15 minutes.

We finished the one run, and I decided it was better for her to enjoy herself on the bunny hill. We stopped and had lunch, and then I took her over to the bunny hill, and talked to the ski instructor, and asked him if I could leave her there to practice. He was great and said he would keep an eye on her, and give her some tips.

After a run (we only did two without her), and while we were skiing I would look down from the chair lift and check on her on the bunny hill, and I could see her getting her turns and snowplow down and managing to stay *up* on her skies.

I think Raine was actually happier to stay there. When I asked her at lunch time on a score of 1-10, how was skiing. She, very thoughtful child that she is, pondered a minute and then said: 5. I like skiing but it is hard. She thanked me numerous times for taking her up, and I know that in about one or two more sessions she will be ready for the chairlift again.

Next year, I bring Savannah, and trust me, I will have those two on the bunny hill for longer than I have the other kids! There is no way I can take two beginners and one small boy up the hill by myself! But we will have fun. They will learn to ski and in a matter of weeks we will all be up the hill together!
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Die Hard Skiiers

It has been so much fun skiing that it was hard to say goodbye to the season. We began in February with going one day a week. In our last week we went three times! I took the boys on Friday knowing it would be our last time. And then I couldn't bear to have it end, so I took them again on Saturday, and then Ray took them on Sunday.

On Friday, the weather was crazy. It was snowing with a real wet snow, and it landed and melted, and I knew by lunch time we would be soaked. There was also a real thick fog hanging low over the mountain.




As we came up the mountain, all huddled down to keep the snow out of our faces, I told the boys, "We are real die-hard skiers! Only those that love skiing will come through this kind of weather!"


It felt good to be able to say that. I feel quite proud that there is something I love to do that makes me 'athletic'. roflol! Any one who knows me, know I am as athletic as they come. I run to the phone, I walk to the car, I run after children, I jump when a child gets hurt, I dance to music with babies and little ones. Yes, I am athletic. HAHA!

I love the fact that I have found something physical that I love to do. But more importantly, I love to do it with my children! So instead of a 20 minute run around the block, which does *how much* good for me? I get to spend *6 hours* doing something good for my body! I then have to remind myself that it does not then give me rights to going home and having a pop and a bowl of chips! laugh

And this was our reward for sticking out the early part of the day: A beautiful sunshiny afternoon. So warm the boys took a much needed rest on the ride up the mountain.
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No Guts, No Glory

We have so enjoyed skiing this year!! We began the season with no equipment, but bit by bit I have acquired enough skis to out fit all the children, plus me. By buying selectively, I have managed to get them from $25 - $30 a pair! Not only that, I have picked up ski boots for Austin, Cassidy, Brition, and myself at $5 a pop!! I even bought skies for the children to grow into next year. So I am set for all of us, except for buying boots for the younger ones. I also have to get Ray taken care of, probably, much to his chagrin! *grin*

He is such a hardworking guy that he simply doesn't take time to play. Well, no more. Next winter, I am buying him his gear at the ski swap, snow pants etc for Christmas, and then we will work around his schedule. We will go to Church for the 9:00 am service, and then head right up to the ski hill from Church. This way he doesn't have to take him off, and we can ski as a family, at least once a week!

What I love about skiing is that it levels the playing field. It is one place where you can almost forget you are a parent; you get to be their pal, instead. There is something very cool about having your children vying to be the ones that share your chairlift on the ride up the mountain, and then as you ride up, you hear your name called and you look down and see some of your older ones skiing past, waving up at you, and then from behind you hear a little one calling from the chair behind, "Mum, which run are we doing this time? Can we do the terrain park this time?"

It is just wonderful.

Obviously, this only works if you parent your kids at home! Sadly, this is not always the way. Once I was sitting on a bench waiting for some of the boys to arrive off the chairlift and I heard a woman correct her what looked to be about nine year old child, as she walked by me, "You don't tell me to shut up!"

How sad.

I have found my physical niche! I hate walking around the block. How boring! I try to get it done as fast as possible, just to get rid of the torture. I have tried running for two seasons and both times I pulled something in my arms? How odd. But it happened. I figured God didn't want me to run, so I stopped. I tried the gym. Fun, but I have to work it in, and really, it isn't 'me'. I want something that comes naturally!

In the past, skiing was a once a year or every few years event. I had fun, but I lived so far from the mountain that was a real ordeal getting there, plus the next day I felt like a truck had run over me! Now, we live 30 minutes from the hill, and it is so easy to get it together. We have a packed box just for the hill of hats, gloves, and snow pants. And then I keep the ski gear in the back of my van, along with helmets and goggles.


This brings down the work side of it to being manageable. The night before I have a child lay out each child's gear and they can get dressed and in the van in just fifteen minutes, versus the painful hour long procedure of before.

Cooper is the most hilarious skier! I wish I could have a video camera on my head, so I could catch his antics. Other bonus of skiing is all the oxygen that courses through my body when I belly laugh for five minutes after one of these episodes!

There was one where he came down the hill and because he is a newer skier, his skies were about 4' wide at the back. This makes him look like he is doing the splits. He is able to control his downhill slide by doing this. But the hilarious thing is that he wanted to take a 90* angle to the left and then another immediate 90* angle back down the hill.

When he left the main hill and turned left at 90* he had to travel about 4 feet, before he then immediately turned 90*, and headed down a forest trail. Okay. Have you ever seen these forest trails on the side of ski slopes? They aren't very wide in the interior parts! Certainly not wide enough to handle 4 foot wide skies!

I was standing there watching and I saw it happen. I knew he was fine because the tree was so small. If you could have only seen it!! I belly laughed for about 5 minutes! He shot left, and then right, and then WHAMMM! and then he did a flip and his skies went in two different directions. And then he sat up with his typical, "I'm fine!"

I have another such funny, but this one I will show later on a video. It was when the boys were doing jumps.... Don't feel bad if you laugh, or if you want to rewind the video to watch it again. I did. And I'm his mum. These little people just seem full of rubber!

See how wide his legs are spread way up that narrow forest trail. I have no clue how he doesn't catch his feet on trees coming down! As I said, No Guts, No Glory, I guess!


This is not even a ski hill. This is the side of the parking lot. That kid will ski anywhere there is a challenge!

Even Briton is now doing the forest trails. He is not one to be left behind!

Another One Bites the.... Tree!

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And He's Off

Briton is now an accomplished skier. He has been up two more times since his second trip. On his third trip he did the two green hills very comfortably, and didn't have to sit out any runs. The third trip was the teller!

We hit the slopes at 10:00 am and by 3:30 we had done around 15 runs! He was able to get off the chair and make it to the bottom in 5 - 10 minutes!

One of Briton's first runs through the 'Fire Place', as he called it. This was an easy green hill, but still a challenge for a new skier.

There was one time at the end of the day when I said we were going to take a certain run, and two of his brothers said they didn't want to make the run because it was too difficult.

Well, his first time down he did do part of it on his back. Actually, it was very steep and as he came over one hill the following one was very steep, and I was a bit worried about him. I was calling to him to, "Go wide," but he didn't really take heed, and came down a little too straight. In doing so he gained a lot of speed, and slipped and slid on down the hill past me. This ski instructor (who I *thought* would try to stop the flying child from passing him) said to me, as I skied up to where Briton had come to a rest, "I thought he was going all the way down."

Uhh huh...

The next time down the hill the same ski instructor was on the chair lift bypassing us, and I had the pleasure of knowing he was watching as Briton took the entire hill without a slip or fall. And I forgot to mention, this was an Intermediate hill - a blue hill.

So he is doing *very well*!

He did have a couple crash and burns on Day 3....

How did he get so far from his first ski? He kept skiing on one foot before he lost that one, too!

With Recovered Skies

After Another Face Plant

At the beginning of Day 4, it was rather interesting. He came around the corner after the chairlift and it was rather icy, as it was so early in the morning. He slid too far to the left and took off an enbankment and hit a tree. Sounds dramatic, doesn't it?

Thankfully, it was just a 5 foot slip down to a baby tree. grin

As He Slid Down the Slope Into the Tree

"I'm Okay, Mum!"

Attached to the tree and trying to figure out how to get back up the slope.

His skies are crossed in the front, and he had a hard time turning himself around, lying down, and flipping his legs over before I could haul him on his stomach back up the hill!! LOL!

We spent the morning on the green slopes, and then after lunch Briton and I hit the blues. These are the Intermediate slopes. I was impressed to see he had figured out how to make minor turns, so not to rush down the hills. This meant he was pretty much able to do any of the blue hills.

Ready For His First Intermediate Hill

Heading Out on the Blue Slope Mountain

And He's Off!

Nearly a Crash and Burn

Lunch Time

Briton got stuck on a flat spot, so kind brother, Cooper, came along and gave him some gentle pushes until they got to a slope. Last year, Cooper was the beginner. This year he is a novice.

He is now doing crazy things like skiing off the beaten path, among the trees and jumps! Next year we are hoping to put the boys (and girls) in a ski school for ten weeks in the winter. This is a ridiculously priced school for $18 for 4 hours of lessons!

We had an excellent day and we have one or two more to go this season. Sadly, our season is not as long as some areas, plus our schools payments for skiing are almost all used up.I have to say, though, I am glad that I didn't try to take on another new skier this year. I think I went farther with Briton than I would have done trying to care for two or three small children who couldn't ski. Next year, we will have the girls up skiing as well, and then it will be a full family event!
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Skiing Day 2

The second time I took Briton skiing it was better.

Big Brother Getting Briton Ready

This time we did the bunny hill one time and then hit the slopes for some real training.


It was better than the first time because he didn't fall very many times on the two green runs we did.

Here is Cassidy rescuing a very snow-covered Briton who plowed himself right into the deep snow. Thank goodness for Cassidy! He was a really great son and was so willing to help me out with Briton!

Even though Briton had improved, it still took us about 30 minutes to get down the hill.

Then after lunch, my friend, Tricia, suggested that she take Briton between her legs and ski him down. She had suggested this to me the day before, and I wasn't sure that would work.


She did it, and I then decided to give it a try, and it worked wonderfully! So we did a couple more like this and what a difference it made! We were whipping down the hills, but I knew I still wanted him to learn so we could go independently. Later, we tried the blue hill and that was a mistake. Killer! I ended up with Briton all tangled up in me and almost broke our bodies!

The Boys With Their Friends (Minus Cassidy and John)

After we got home it was not a night to relax! Too many people to feed and too many days off school, so we had to do some cooking and some schooling!

We have been taking Mondays to ski, and heading out of town for a six hour day of gymnastics every Tuesday, so somewhere in there we have to get the schooling done and the meals cooked and the baking done!

Making Dinner

Making Cookies

Schoolwork

Playdough With a Friend Who Was Visiting

Bookwork
Savannah Problem Solving (How do I remove this top)

Taking a turkey off the bone, cookies on the go, the beginning of soup, and dinner in the making.

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