This Is How Colin Eats His Toast...

..this week! Who knows what he'll come up with next week!

Christmas Morning at Our House

The day finally came!



Ian was Santa and handed out the gifts.




He was also Indiana Jones!




Colin is practicing his carpentry skills with his new Black and Decker workshop.





Ride 'em, Cowboy! (Don't forget your juice!)





Time for a Christmas doughnut.





Hope you had a great one, too!




Merry Christmas!

Ian's Note to Santa

Christmas Eve at Terri's

Every year we get together for food, conversation and a Christmas celebration. It's all about the kids. They open their presents from the extended family. Then everyone has their immediate family celebration Christmas morning. It's like having two Christmases each year!



Ian.




Colin.




Ashley, Erin, and Lindsay.




Wil and Cooper.

Arctic Survival Training

I've been showing Ian some basics to survival in the wilderness. We really do it for the fun but it's good stuff to know!




Ian in his snow cave. Underneath him is a bed of pine boughs for insulation. To his left is a candle which, along with body heat, is sufficient to bring the temperature up to 50 degrees or so in there.

Starting a fire

.

We only had time for a start so we didn't gather kindling, etc.



Eat your heart out, Uncle Rick and Uncle Jeff! (You guys should get up here and do some survivin' with us!)

The Storm

It cracks me up when people (even weathermen) refer to any snowfall as a "storm." This time, though, we had 13 inches, and high winds created blizzard conditions. This one qualifies!

Needles to say, we had the day off from work to clean it up and play in the snow. Some people hate the snow. I'm not a downhill skier, but the way I figure it is if it's going to be cold let's have some snow once in a while! I ain't scared!

Rudolph

Rudolph likes raisins. Who knew?

This picture was taken right after Santa asked him to guide the sleigh.