Sunday, November 11, 2012

Dear Kids,
          Big news! Dad and I are expecting again! (No, not that!!) We’re expecting grandchild  #29! Little baby Hawkins is due June 2nd. Dad noted that it will be the tiebreaker. (14 boys and 14 girls so far.) Congratulations to Donna and Bevan!
          As of Thursday afternoon, we were still having delightful fall weather. Donna came by to borrow the air compressor and the staple gun, but she had to wait while I did the finishing touches on my deck project. She pruned the top of the tall pine tree while she waited, and Anna watched in wonder. We knew it was our last good day of fall! By Friday morning it was raining, and by Friday afternoon, I was already shoveling snow off the brand new deck. It’s weird to finish a deck one day, and shovel snow off it the next.
          Since then, we’ve had a ton of snow! There were 16 inches by yesterday noon, and we’ve had more since then. Yesterday afternoon Donna and Bevan brought us lunch, and then Donna tromped out the sledding hill with snowshoes. We all (including Anna) took a few runs. Then John arrived with his kids, and they all went sledding, too. Besides that, the kids had a lot of fun running around the yard and throwing themselves into the snow. I had forgotten, that for kids, snow is something you PLAY in. It’s not just something you have to shovel.
         11 more days till Thanksgiving! Please call me for a food assignment if you’re going to eat with us. It looks like we might not be hiking the big loop, but we’ll have a lot of fun sledding and playing games and eating. (And there will be midnight shopping at the outlet stores, too, I’m sure.)
          Lots of love, Mom