Keeping Busy in the Snowstorm

Yesterday we had our first big snowstorm of the year! Snowstorms can be so fun sometimes. Especially if they land on a weekend. If they come during the week, you just sit in your office and work like normal; but if they come on a weekend, it makes the time pass so much more slowly and creates such a nice cozy atmosphere. I've gotten to spend so much time on the piano and reading my new book, Vanity Fair. I'm not quite sure what I think of that book yet. Sometimes I really like it, and then I hit a spot that just moves so slowly. It was originally written in weekly installments for a newspaper (as were many novels during that time), so I think the author's mood tended to change from one chapter to the next and he would sometimes just feel like going on a monologue about whatever issue happened to be bothering him at the time. But, I actually didn't sit down here to blog a review of Vanity Fair. ;) I was telling you about the storm. Well, we got a LOT of snow. Must be almost a foot? I'm not sure. Here's a picture of what it looked like yesterday afternoon after about 3 hours of snow:

And here's a picture of what it looked like this afternoon (about 24 hours later):

So, now I'm sipping coffee and baking kringla. :) What a great way to spend an afternoon! Jordan got his new computer, so now I have this one mostly all to myself. Hopefully that will make it a little easier for me to blog and to keep up with Facebook friends. I'd like to branch out a little with my blog...maybe make it a little more sophisticated. It'll definitely be a process, though. I've started reading a little about web design, and there's a lot of information out there. It will probably be quite a while before I really start to accomplish anything! :)

This past week I finished wrapping the Christmas presents that we have so far. I love wrapping presents! It's not quite as fun as it used to be when I was at home, though. Back then, Julie and Jessica and I would transform an area of the house into a present-wrapping factory. I remember a couple times, we all just wrapped in our own rooms (the doors were close enough that we could keep the 'supplies' in the middle area within easy reach for all of us). But, that wasn't quite as much fun as when we would just choose a room and make little 'barriers' between ourselves so we couldn't see what the other girl was doing, but we were still close enough to easily share the supplies. Those were the best times! And then, when we were all finished, we would happily carry all our freshly-wrapped gifts to the living room and arrange them under the tree and point out to each other the gifts that had our names on them! So much fun! Even now, when we go home for Christmas, Jessica makes me go into the living room and look under the tree for all the presents with my name on them! :D Those feelings of anticipation and excitement (not just to open your own gifts, but also for the others to find out what you gave to them!) are still there and can still bring a smile and a little thrill to me! So, since I told Jess I would post this picture, here it is (and yes, Jessica, one of those is for you!):

As I mentioned before, Jordan got a new laptop. It was a much-needed and premeditated purchase! He spent hours upon hours doing research and reading reviews and comparing prices. The computer he got is amazing! My favorite feature? The red cover! ;) This laptop (the 'old' one) has been very dependable and definitely served its purpose, but now that Jordan has Logos (an awesome Bible program we bought about a year ago), this computer just can't keep up very well. So, as time has gone on, this old computer has gotten slower and slower...almost to the point where Logos just wasn't really all that helpful because it took so long to do anything with it. The new computer has a much better capability to run Jordan's programs. We've had so much fun just being impressed by all of it's abilities and neat features.

Well, I'm going to go play a game of Cribbage with Jordan now! I hope I win this time! ;)