Sammy Day 14: 12 More Days To Go

It looks as though Sammy is excited as we are about Christmas. Now hopefully he keeps his greedy butt out of my candy stash.

Sammy Day 13: Ho Ho Ho

Sammy had a fun surprise for the kids this morning. He had Santa email a personalized message for each of the kids to his email account. We found him sitting at the computer with his email account open and a little sticky note asking the kids to click on the link. When they did Santas video opened up and he addressed each child, told them what they wanted, if they'd been naughty or nice and gave each a challenge to work on over the next year.

If anyone has never done these videos before, my kids absolutely love them. You can check it all out here and ask Santa to put a little message together for your little ones, or for you!

Sammy Day 12: Let's Get Physical

I guess Sammy thought he should work on those scrawny arms of his because we found him pretty much getting flattened by my weights this morning. Poor Sammy, maybe he should have started with a toothpick.

Sammy Day 11: Sack Races

It looks like a close race with tiny reindeer almost crossing the finish line. I'm pretty sure that's not the order they were placed in to begin with but I'm not surprised to see the order changed as Brayden was first awake and now his stuffy is in the lead. Everyone else seems to be spot on so at least he left Sammy alone. Speaking of Sammy, it looks like he can't take his eyes off Barbie. Is it because she's so beautiful or because her hair is stuck in that crazy position?

Sammy Day 10: Sugar Munchies

Sammy was taking up someones seat at the table this morning showing off his breakfast of champions. Is this really the type of food Elves live off of? Don't they worry about sugar bugs or do they have a really great dental plan? Maybe I'm just jealous but seriously, he needs a really good multivitamin.

Sammy Day 9: Tree Climbing

Sammy tied himself up a handy harness and was making his way up the Christmas tree this morning. He only made it half way up before the kids woke up, better luck next time Sammy.

Sammy Day 8: Candy Binge

Sammy spent his free time binging on the kids Halloween Candy last night. We busted him in their stash trying to get into some cheesy's this morning. The kids must have been nervous about accidentally touching Sammy and causing him to loose his magic because no one asked for a treat yesterday.

Sammy Day 7: Snowball Fight

I guess it's too cold outside for Sammy to have a real snowball fight, he has to dig into my secret marshmellow stash instead. At least he has a worthy opponent with Operetta the Monster High Doll, she's seems to be doing quite well considering she only has one hand (a war wound from a different battle named Sydney).
When I woke up this morning and went to make sure the kids were getting ready for school I busted Brayden with some of Sammys snowballs in his mouth. Thankfully Sammy had restocked in time for the picture! Now that the pictures are taken its fair game. I'm sure I'll find Madison with her mouth full at some point today.

Sammy Day 6: Sledding!

Sammy was ready for some action this morning. He got himself ready to be launched before the kids woke up. All they have to do is give his little sled a little tap and he's going to fly down the rail!

Our First Snow Day

It started late Sunday night. We could hear the wind whipping around outside and the snow had started to fall. Monday, thankfully, the kids didn't have any school thanks to a PD day so we hunkered down inside and watched the snow fall sideways. For a lot of the time we couldn't see past the end of our driveway with all the blowing snow and we were thankful we had a nice warm place to stay because it was freezing cold outside.
Our neighbour was out plowing the driveway and finally around 3pm Ryan couldn't stand being stuck in the house any longer so we all piled into the van (yay for AWD) and took off to Canadian Tire. It was so insane outside. There were so many cars just stuck in drifts of snow or people that had their vehicles stuck in parking lots because of the snow piles left from the big plows blocking their exit. Other then the random cars all stuck in the roads, it was pretty dead.
On our way home Ryan kept jumping out of the van to offer his pushing services but finally we decided it was time to get the kids home. As we pulled into our driveway we noticed that the neighbour's truck was on but it wasn't moving. We waited for a while and slowly went as far as we could until Ryan parked the van and ran to see what was up. Johnny's plow was stuck and so Ryan went to help pull him out while we sat in the van and waited. During this wait our other neighbour from across the street pulls up in his truck and offers his help so off he goes barrelling down the driveway as fast as he could until he's totally stuck as well. By this time Neighbour 1 had his other truck out and Ryan was helping to try to pull out the plow only to have Neighbour 1 get his second truck stuck.
So now with 3 trucks stuck in the driveway Ryan heads to get his truck and help pull....
Now with 4 trucks stuck the kids and I make sure all the snow gear we had with us in the van is on our persons and we make a run for the house. The -30*C wind pelting us with snow down our 400m driveway was ok but hauling Madison through the huge drifts was a challenge. My butt hurt the next day after that short work out.
By this time Neighbour 2 had run home with our van (since his truck was stuck) to get his big snow digger machine and Ryan was starting up his big work rig to try to yank all these trucks out since it saved the day last time.
Thankfully the big rig only got half stuck for a while before they were able to get it positioned properly on the driveway and get everyone hauled out and the driveway got plowed. From the time we arrived at our driveway to the time it was plowed 4 hours had elapsed!

The next day was a snow day from school and Ryans big work rig had been trapped in with a massive drift through our front loop so it looked like it would be a snow day for him as well. Ryan was able to borrow the neighbours plow and he went to work on our road pushing snow into big piles that would be somewhat out of the way. We also had Neighbour 2s snow digger/blower and so Ryan cleared off the huge drift in front of the house creeping up the front stairway.
By the end of the day all the drifts that were blocking the driveway and the turn about on our property were cleared away and the kids made their way outside to play.

As if that wasn't enough we went into Airdrie to a friends for dinner and Ryan spent the entire time using his brand new tow rope pulling loads of people clear from our friends street. By loads I mean about 45 minutes time. I thought we had it bad out in the country but after driving through Kings Heights subdivision I was blown away with the amounts of snow piled on everyones lawn.
After we were well fed and warmed up we ended up at the theatre for cheap night to watch the new Disney movie Frozen with some more friends. I have to say that the perfect way to end a snow day is to watch a cartoon as a family all about snow!
I hope all of you were able to stay unstuck or help quickly found you!

Sammy Day 5: Elf Yourself

Sammy was hard at work on the computer last night as we slept! With a bowl full of candy, he got himself to the Elf Yourself website and made himself a little video for us to wake up to this morning. It was pretty funny, the kids loved it and of course had to make one of their own. Since it's a snow day today it was the perfect way to start our day!

Sammy Day 4: Someone Has a Crush

Sammy is starting to get a little possessive of Mary. This morning we woke up to find Joseph pushed out of the way and Sammy snuggling up in his place. I hope Sammy figures out Mary is taken or things might get awkward.

Sammy Day 3: Zip Line Fun

It looks as though Sammy still loves his extreme sports. We found him zip lining across the family room this morning. I hope the kids aren't getting any ideas.

Our Christmas Mouse Mice

Since it's December we decided we could put up our tree and decorate for Christmas. The kids had a PD day from school and the weather was rotten so we hunkered in and started rearranging so we could find a spot for the tree.
While the kids and I cleaned up their rooms with their newly arranged furniture Ryan went up into the loft part of the garage and dug out our tree and decorations. We didn't have too many ornaments packed away because we had bought new ones but we had a tupperware that had the few we saved, homemade ornaments and the gifted ones to the kids each year from grandma. Ryan starts pulling out some things and notices movement. He calls me into the room telling me we found a Chrismtas mouse but we quickly decide it's not just one but two. As we start digging through the tupperware and pulling things out we start to think that there are 3 of them in there ... then 4 ... then 5.
We finally get everything out of the tote and decide that it's going outside for the dog. He's a mouser, this will be his early Christmas present. Banks has his way with mice after we get a final tally of 7. By the time Banks has finished with his new toys he's completely covered in snow and bouncing around like a kid on Christmas morning.
ICK!