Not Frozen to Death Yet!

All the 'kids' in Eric's family. From left to right is: Kelly (the baby sister), me, Madison (the 3 1/2 year old niece), Eric, Kaylee (the 20 month old niece), Brian (Tanya's husband), Tanya (Eric's older sister), Ryan (Tammy's boyfriend), and Tammy (Eric's middle sister).

So we've made it through more than a week of Iowa winter and I haven't turned into an icicle yet! Quite an accomplishment given the snow, ice, and sub-freezing temperatures!!! (Although, I will get into trouble if I don't tell you that it 'warmed up' yesterday. We had a high of 36 degrees. Eric kept saying, "It is really nice out today!" I still think we need to work on the definition of 'warm'!) Eric is loving the snow and the cold and says that it feels like Christmas now to him. I am tolerating it all, but I hear the tropical Brasil climate calling to me!!! I tend to agree with Madison, our niece. She looked out the window this weekend at Eric and Kelly out in the snow, looked back up at me and said, "They are NUTS! I don't know why they like to be cold!" All I could do is laugh. She is getting so grown up (and so smart too!)

We got to go up to Urbana, IA on Friday to help Eric's mom celebrate her birthday. All his family was there, so we had a really good time with everyone. The most fun was being able to give our nieces an early Christmas present. (I love seeing kids reactions at Christmas time! We don't have any kids on my side anymore, so I have a blast shopping for our 2 nieces and getting to play with them.) Eric's sister, Tanya, told us the girls needed snowboots, and given the current base of snow out there, we decided to let them open their boots on Friday. Of course, that led to Madison (who is only 3 1/2 and shouldn't be able to read, right?) finding every gift under the tree with her name on it and trying to convince her Mom to let her open up some more presents. And then came the challenge of convincing the 20 month old niece that she should take off her new boots so that her feet would stop sweating while she was inside. But all that pleading was met with an insistent "boots . . . on!" My nieces share my love of all things shoes. And with little girl shoes being so stinkin' cute . . . well, I have a real problem walking past a pair in their sizes. Throw in a sale (regardless of how small it may be) and I'm a goner for sure! But, much to Eric's dismay, it is soooo much fun!

We've been enjoying getting together with some of our Burlington friends since we've been in town and are looking forward to a couple more days to catch up with everyone. Then it is back to Urbana this weekend and then to Georgia on Christmas Day! We are expecting our visas to be finished up and ready for us shortly after Christmas and are supposed to be shipped to us in Georgia. If all goes as planned and we have our documents in hand, we leave January 1st to head back South. (You know, where it is WARM!)