Day 323: First Snowflakes!

It's late, and well, not much to report, oh wait, we saw SNOWFLAKES today!  And the wind was bitter blowing through my jeans tonight on the way into church.  It reminded me of all those bitter winds on PEI, which actually makes me sad.  I changed my profile picture on Facebook to a picture of our van half buried under snow.  Why? Because I could and it's time for winter!  So, besides that, not much happened out of the unusual that pictures can't explain.

We dropped off our two boxes for Operation Christmas Child today.  This was the picture Keturah included in her box.  I also printed off a picture of our family to include.

Justin's note for his box.  I love how he showed where we live in the world.

Oh my goodness, what do I see in this current weather app?  SNOW IN VIEW! and LIGHT SNOW!

That's right, there were snowflakes seen in the area.  I texted the family because that's what we've done the last 5 years when we would see the first snowflakes.  I'm not trying to skip Thanksgiving, but I'm excited for Christmas.  I don't know why, maybe because Abishai is older?  Hopefully we'll get the Christmas boxes out of storage next weekend.

I think this has to do with putting me into the Christmas mood.  One week from tonight, I'll be taking in a Michael W. Smith Christmas concert, complete with orchestra and Amy Grant and some other artist from American Idol or something.  Anyway, it's not all about me, but I am blessed to be able to enjoy a little me time once in awhile.

Abishai grabbed my phone off my desk, and Keturah decided to use it to snap a couple of pictures with it.

Foo-foo's!

Twins!  Ok, not totally, but the shirts match, and they are the same size.  That dimple of Benaiah's is from my family though ;-)  And the derp face? Well, that's all Benaiah.

So is this derp face that looks like Beaker from the Muppets.  He loves to put his brother in a headlock and Justin loves it too!

Troll!  Keturah was showing off this really neat turkey oreo treat she got in Sunday School and Justin decided to "ruin" the picture.  Hilarious!

Very neat treat!

Other moments from the day includes Abishai enjoying some Barbie time with Keturah.

And hiding in the ice chests outside, when it was near freezing temps.  They came in within minutes.

Apparently it was a Keturah/Abishai day.  Abishai loved sharing a snack with her before church.

Close up of the turkey!

Even the feet are detailed!

The back of Mr. Turkey, which was then promptly gobbled up!

Our venus fly trap did open up again when it realized that it couldn't eat dirt.

Look, Mom!  Tongs make great armor!  He likes to use them as weapons, too.

The remnants of the oreo turkey on baby's cheeks!

Our stickers from dropping off our boxes for Operation Christmas Child.

On a serious note, we finished reading our history book today!  We'll do the rest of the activities in it next week.  But before we did, I had the kids watch a vhs tape showing some raw footage of the first 24 hrs after the 9/11 attacks.  It wasn't quite showing all the famous images we who lived through it know, so I ended up bringing up a Michael W. Smith song, "There She Stands," that he wrote soon after the tragedy about our flag on YouTube knowing that some version just might contain the pictures I was looking for.  I was looking for the ones where the men raised the flag and people fleeing down the street as the towers fell.  I think the kids did get the somber message after seeing the video of the song and pictures.  Watching the video almost brought me to tears and those kinds of videos don't usually do that.  It was a powerful moment for me.  So much has changed in 15 years, and it's weird to think my kids don't have those haunting images in their minds as we do.  I'm going to include the video link here.  It's an incredible song, too, and not just because Michael W. Smith wrote it.  Enjoy.

There She Stands by Michael W. Smith