Kris Noorman | the journal

Looking at these pictures, which were taken only three weeks ago, makes me happy for that last little bit of indian summer that we had. October was chilly and then we had a nice little warmup in November. But last night it snowed. A lot. We didn’t get a ton of the white stuff here, but north of us got around 10 inches. More in some places. I drove home in whiteout conditions this morning after dropping the kids off at school. Anyone who has read this blog for a long time knows how much I dislike winter. It’s pretty, that first snowfall, making everything lovely and white and sparkly. And I’m fine with it staying around for a nice white Christmas. But then it can go away.

Doing advent boxes with the kids again this year. Our first four days were:
Dec 1st – pop popcorn and watch a Christmas movie – we watched Elf!
Dec 2nd – make it snow indoors. we cut out a bunch of paper snowflakes and made paper chains to hang up.
Dec 3nd – write a letter to Santa.
Dec 4th – I gave them each a piece of candy.

I like to alternate activities and little candies or small gifts.

Jake’s first company Christmas party is next week. I’m very excited. It’s at Frederik Meijer Gardens and it will be so pretty. They always have a big display of Christmas trees with decorations from all different countries and tons of lights. We might even get to go on a carriage ride while we’re there. My mom took me shopping last week and helped me pick out a dress. Got a cute one at Kohl’s in the Vera Wang collection. I had my mind set on a black dress, but I saw this one and just decided to pick it up and try it. None of the dresses I tried on fit me right until I tried two Vera ones on. Something about the way they’re cut just hangs right on me. So I went with a cute little red/black one and found a red sweater to wear over it to keep me warm. Pretty sure I’m going to need that with this cold weather that looks like it’s here to stay. Also got my first high heels in years. It’s probably been since I was a bridesmaid in my friend Julie’s wedding in ’98 that I wore heels, so wish me luck!

My wonderful sis-in-law, Heather, and I had a conversation a couple weeks ago about the show Glee. She asked if I’d seen it and I had heard of it, but I really had no idea what it was about. She gifted me the first six episodes on iTunes and, after seeing the first episode, I was immediately hooked. I love it. My mom told me she used to be in the Glee club when she was in high school but they never did anything like the kids on Glee. haha! I watched all the other episodes online this week and I’m all caught up for the finale next week. I can’t seem to get the songs out of my head. My three favorite musical moments so far (for those who’ve seen them and know what I’m talking about) are “Don’t Stop Believing” from the first episode where Will is about to quit as their teacher, “Keep Holding On” from the episode where everyone learns about Quinn’s pregnancy, and “Imagine” where the Glee kids sing with the school for the deaf. I pretty much love it all, but there are certain scenes that really moved me and those are a few. And there is something about the guy who plays their teacher. He’s got such a fun spirit and when he cries, I cry. Love it! Thanks again, Heather!

Got space cleared to put up our Christmas tree this weekend, so hopefully we’ll get that done. The kids will be happy once we get it up so they can help decorate it. Looking forward to that.