Winter Blizzard '08

Well, the storm continues on...

We got a call earlier that church is once again cancelled for this week.

It has not stopped snowing here since David and I have been up. We thought maybe it would lighten up around 10:00 but it has literally been non-stop.

Grace was learning how to drive in the snow, so she ended up here and is going to spend the night.

We were supposed to go up to Auburn today to have Christmas with David's mom, but we could barely get our car up out driveway let alone up to Washington.

So, we made pizza and David decided that he wanted to move the TV downstairs and put it where out radio was. In order to do that he had to drill a hole into our wall to make an outlet.

Grace helped out on the other side...

Later David Hammerstrom came over with some goodies. We watched a few movies and then went out to play in the snow.

That's basically been the day. We are just watching movies and chilling out (literally).

David and Grace decided to have a race in the snow...in barefeet...in 18 degree weather.

On Your Mark, Get Set, Go!

The race back.

The aftermath.

Getting warm in front of the space heater.

Saying "Merry Christmas"

A few weeks ago our pastor mentioned an article from the Wall Street Journal in his sermon entitled "Mad Max and the Meltdown: how we went from Christmas to crisis." It's main point is that as we as a country are refraining from religion more and more (he used the example that we are afraid to even say "Merry Christmas" anymore for fear that we may offend somebody) we are causing our own economic downturn. The morals and values taught by religion are erased so there is no conscious or morality to stop us from becoming self-centered and self-serving. (It's not explicitly promotion to Christianity and there is no mention of Jesus Christ, but it does seem to be the religion he's pointing at.)

In any case it got me to realize that even I don't say "Merry Christmas" anymore. This was not a concious decision it was just my attitude towards it. I wasn't afraid of offending anyone it just seemed like a why bother- it doesn't really mean anything anymore. That's not true at all. We need remind people about Christ and plant the seeds everywhere, because we don't know how it builds on other people, and Christ uses us as His voice to others.

This has caused me to conclude that I need to start wishing everyone a Merry Christmas and change my attitude toward Christmas.

Let it Snow, Let it Snow, Let it Snow!

We woke this morning to this:

As a result church was canceled today.

We called a few people who live nearby us to see if they want to come over, so we'll see...

Last Saturday we got our Christmas tree, but we didn't decorate it until yesterday. Normally I just throw on whatever ornaments we have, but this year I wanted to have a color scheme to it, so we decided to go with white/clear and gold.

Personally I like silver & blue better, but we had more gold and white ornaments then blue and silver and we don't have the money to buy all kinds of Christmas decorations this year. I'm just going to stock up on it after Christmas for next year. The one thing I really want to get for this year are new stockings. We bought cheap ones when we first got married and they are starting to show its wear and tear. I really want to get those old-fashioned knitted stockings, but David likes the fancier decorative ones. I found some knitted ones that he said we could buy, but they don't really match with anything else. I suppose that's the idea of the old-fashioned kind. I think his would probably match better, but I like mine better. At this point I haven't made up my mind on what to get. Very important stuff you know. :)

I've got most of my shopping done for Christmas this year. The few more that I need to buy I know what to get, I was just waiting to get paid to buy them. I'll probably be doing that tomorrow with David. This year I did a lot of online shopping and it really was nice. I just spent a few hours on Amazon looking for gifts and I was done. I think I'll try to hone this in so I can spend even less time next year, but I think I'll go ahead and do the online thing next year too. For those who do a lot of online shopping I recommend going to http://www.ebates.com/ and getting a free account with them. You earn a percentage back of whatever you spend and they send you a check on a quarterly basis. I've already been refunded $15 myself. The percentages are not high (anywhere from 1% to 6%), but if you shop online often enough you can get a little bit of money back. I'll put a link up on my side bar too. They had been doing a double percentage for the Christmas season, but I'm not sure if that's still going on since it's so close to Christmas.

On another note, after months of looking we bought a couch set for our living room.

We got them at Furniture Outlet. They are soooo comfy. The frames come with a lifetime warranty and the stuffing and fabric have a limited warranty. It was a old look to it, but still up to date. The fabric is tapestry, but he pattern is so suttle you don't even notice it until your close to the couch. Obviously you can't even see them with the pictures. Perfect for dirt and spill stains.