The time had come. It was the weekend after New Year’s and Steph and I were ready to reclaim some space in our living room. It was a Sunday morning with nothing planned (a rare pleasure for Steph and I) and Steph was convinced to make good use of the day. I was busy snuggling with the kiddos on the couch watching recorded episodes of Dinosaur Train, and Steph was taking the ornaments off the tree and carefully wrapping them for another year’s storage.

Steph finished her task right as the program ended, or at least as Thane’s patience with the program ended. He went to the tree and began picking up an ornament and placing it on the tree. “No Thane, we are taking the tree down today” Mommy said in a gentle voice. I was not prepared for what would happen next.

Thane’s eyes widened. The edges of lips dropped below his chin. His face elongated threefold. He gave his mother a longing, “Say it isn’t so” look. Steph’s voice cracked. If I had not seen Thano and only heard her voice, I would have been certain that she had witnessed him being horribly injured. “But sweetie, that is what makes the tree so special is that we only bring it out at Christmas time. Christmas is over.” Thanos’s head dropped. His shoulders slumped and he turned his back to his mother. I looked at Steph. Her face betrayed the pain caused by the dagger in her heart.

Thanos walked back to the tree. He grabbed a wrapped ornament from a nearby box, carefully unwrapped it and hung it gently on the tree. “I am going to decorate the tree again… I am… I am going to decorate the tree… by my-self.” With that, the dagger was twisted. I looked at Steph’s face, now contorted and elongated as well. It grew whiter as the blood continued to disappear from her skin. Apparently blood cannot be pumped by a broken heart.

The next few minutes involved convincing Thano to sit on Mom’s lap while Mommy and Daddy explained how Christmas would come again and be very special next year. After less time that I expected, he acquiesced. He got down from Mommy’s lap and removed two of the ornaments he had just placed on the tree. I guess by accepting this change, he somehow felt that he could warp time and make Christmas come sooner next year.

He continued to help us dismantle the tree and wrap ornaments for some time while his patience with the tasks persisted. After accepting the fate of Christmas ’09 and choosing to remove the ornaments himself, he remained positive the rest of the day.

Mommy, however, is still recovering from the incident. If you see her soon, give her a hug.

Here is a long overdue post!

Mara Danae Hansen turned a year old on December 4, 2009. I would love to say that it was a peaceful, reminiscent time where we truly got to enjoy this beautiful little girl. In actuality, it was a hectic, crazy time. We are so thankful for our wonderful and family and friends though who did help us settle down and make it special for our wonderful baby girl. Instead of one party we had THREE parties for her! One with Gia and Pappou, followed by the day’s celebration with Uncle James and Aunt DiDi and one celebration with all of her friends at school.

Mara has brought so much joy to our family. She adores her big brother and he is wonderful with her. In our myriad of car rides, I can find him holding her hand, passing her toys, or passing her food. Some times he shares too much with her…I once pulled over in a panic to the sounds of a choking Mara. I found her with the top of a milk jug half way down her throat. Fun (and all was okay and a valuable lesson learned!).

Before Mara was born, we joked that she would be devil child. Crying all the time, needy, etc because her brother was such a mild mannered baby and lightning does not strike twice. Boy, were we wrong! Mara is the gentlest, easiest, happiest baby one could ask for. She slept through the night so early and is entertained by just being in your arms or near her family.

But all the genteel qualities does not mean she lacks personality! At school, they have a nickname for her….DRAMA QUEEN!!! I don’t know how many blank-month olds have perfected the sobbing technique but she has. After a long cry, she will sit and sob, as if you have deeply offended her. I am sure we will see much more of this in the years to come. At school one day, she apparently took a spill the teachers did not think was bad. She started bawling, but the teachers thought, oh that is just drama queen and thought nothing of it. She continued crying (which is weird) and noticed blood streaming down her poor little face! Yikes!

She can also strike a pose very well, future model that she is! Before she could even roll over, she would lie on her side, hand on her hip. FIERCE!

She is super speedy…a very fast crawler and I have had to run to catch up with her on more than one occasion.

She is fearless. Swimming is fun. Where Thane cried for 5 weeks straight during his first swim lessons, she smiles and laughs. Thane swims first now while I get her in her cute one piece. Each time after she is dressed she goes straight for the edge, plops herself down, and leisurely splashes her arm in the water. Kennette and I joked that she would one day go right in (and Kennette warned me that if she did, she would handle it). Well…one day Mara rolled right in! Kennette let her go in her rest and then picked her up after a few seconds. We looked at each other expecting a wail….not my Mara! She giggled and splashed and was so very proud of herself!

She is also a very smart little girl. She has several signs (milk, more, change) and lots of words (dada, mama, moo, dog) and repeats so many things that we say (including song tunes and “I did it!” one day). The doctor was very impressed.

Thank you Mara for joining our family and bringing us so much joy! We love you so much!

Nashville is having a snow storm…which translates in real life to Nashville had some snow fall.

They have been talking about it for a week. This impending blizzard. It will shut down the city…we need food, we need water, we need to shut down EVERYTHING!

Tuesday night (aka the night before it was all to take place) there was a run on grocery stores. Stores were out of milk. There were lines 15 deep at the deli counter. I heard from one of the Publix employees that it looked like Toys R Us the day before Christmas.

Tuesday night came…no snow. But time ticked away and everyone stayed glued to the Snowbird report and their windows. No snow fell. 91 schools did though. Not an ounce of snow and they closed 91 schools.

When I woke up at 5:45 am the next morning (I am not working, why am I waking up at such an ungodly hour???) I asked Jay if there was no snow on the ground. “Nope. Nada,” he said.

Snowbird is our local news station’s school closing mascot. They actually have a mascot for the school closings. I know it is the south and they are football obsessed, but a mascot for something that only happens 2-3 times per year? I went downstairs and looked at the Snowbird site. Our school was opening an hour and a half late. Ok. That works.

We made a morning out of it and went to Chilck-Fil-A for breakfast. Yum! I lollygagged around school for awhile and then headed home.

On the radio, I heard someone say that it was snowing, it just was not hitting the ground. Way to go meteorologists!

At lunchtime, when I was going to meet Becky, Tom and Jay for lunch, I crawled from Franklin to Nashville. The snow started to fall. Not much fell but it was enough to justify the fear and the excitement of the white stuff! It was also enough to cause accidents galore. I saw one on a hill where a car careened off into the ditch. I heard there were over 100 reported in Nashville, including police cars.

I made it home safe and sound and then went to my interview (fingers crossed).

I woke up this morning to school being closed along with every other school in the area. I posted on Facebook that school was closed for an inch of snow and was corrected that it was only a centimeter. I responded that I had not wanted to give the snow a complex.

Here is my favorite picture of yesterday, from the Walgreen’s parking lot. I feel like it summarizes this experience best.

Snow Southern Style

So…what are your snow stories from the Blizzard 2010???