A Unique Winter

This winter has been one for the history books.  Sub zero temperatures have been a recurrence and wind chills have kept the kids home from school and us stuck indoors.  We got some snow this week, not much, but in combination with the temps, the roads have stayed icy and the kids have not been to school all week!  If they don't go tomorrow, which I'm betting they won't, they also get off Monday and a half day on Tuesday for teacher workdays.  Add another day and a half and that will be as long as our Christmas break!   We have tried to keep busy, and Cameron had a 24 hour stomach bug to liven things up, but mostly we have been hunkered down watching a Star Wars marathon and drinking gallons of hot chocolate.  Tomorrow is also our last snow day left on the school calendar, so if we get much more weather like this we will likely be going to school until July.  It is so cold that one of our pipes froze in the house and burst down in the basement.  That ordeal was not fun at all, but luckily we are getting new carpet and paint thanks to our insurance.  And just because I uploaded some photos, you will also see Gavin's first pinewood derby car which he raced this month.  In true Johnson fashion, his car finished dead last.  One of the wheels didn't turn right.  Did I mention that Jeremy is now Cubmaster and in charge of the Pinewood derby?  Please, somebody teach him how to make a decent car for our kids!  If we get just one that does ok, I promise we will just repaint it each year and never bug you again!   Stay warm out there!

Frozen

 

Over Winter Break we took the kids to see Frozen, an adorable movie about a girl that accidentally froze her town.  Today it feels like Elsa used her powers on Northern Virginia, the temperatures are in the single digits and the wind chill is as much as 20 below zero.  It hasn't been this cold in 20 years and everyone has been bracing for the big chill.  School was cancelled today because the county was worried about kids that walk to school and at bus stops, so we had an extra day of vacation and have been spending it well drinking hot cocoa and taking hot baths.  We also tried a cool experiment where we blew bubbles outside and watched them freeze- so beautiful, but we didn't last too long before having to run inside to warm up.  It's the kind of day where you just want to climb under the covers and watch a movie or read a book.  It's supposed to warm up a bit tomorrow so I'm sure it will be back to school and back to regular life, but we are enjoying the time we have to snuggle today.

New Year

For New Year's Eve we spent lots of good family time together.  We played board games and watched a movie and had our traditional fondue dinner with cheese and chocolate.  We let the kids stay up this year,

but poor Mason konked out during our movie.  I woke him up so he wouldn't miss our balloon drop and milk and cookie toast, but it was like waking a bear from hibernation- we all were growled at.  Eventually his mood improved and we were able to see the ball drop and toot our horns.  We made some resolutions, and Cameron wants to work on his habit of complaining too much, Gavin wants to learn to write more neatly and Mason wants to learn how to draw stars and animals.  Jeremy would like to get in better shape and I want to quit yelling so much and spending too much time on my phone.  Wish us luck on our goals!