I'll pick a theme each month. I'll post directions. You'll follow directions. Simple? I think so. More directions below.
In honor of winter, please share in the comment section (or write a blog and link) about either your favorite snow activity or snow memory.
The first time I've spent any great amount of time in a snowy climate was in Montana. Since then we've lived in Anchorage and now northern Japan. In Montana we discovered cross country skiing. I wouldn't say I ever excelled at this, but I do have fond memories of cross country skiing with our then six children (backpacks and all). In Anchorage I added snow shoes to my winter gear. These are a lot of fun. I am NOT a downhill skier....one of my favorite snow memories involves homeschool ski day when we lived in Hardin, MT. I drove up to the slopes with my children and a friend's (Rusty and Cindy and girls). First I slid into the garage at the parsonage at Rusty and Cindy's.....then I valiantly tried all day to conquer the bunny slope. The kids did; I didn't. I even plowed down a row of children.
Our kids have made a variety of things out of snow: forts, igloos, snow families....these always bring a smile to my tropics loving face. They plan to attempt a Tori gate in the future. Now you share your snow stories.
January's Giveaway
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| From 2010-01-12 snow,games |
This month's winner will receive two ramen bowls, two rice bowls, two sushi plates, two little dishes for sauce - handles double as chopstick rest, and two sets of chopsticks. I'll throw in enough chopsticks for every member in your family.
I don't want the same person to win each month, but I don't know that I have enough readers to limit winners to once a year, so we'll try this: If you win this month's giveaway you agree not to enter another giveaway for three months, Jan. 2010 winner won't enter until May 2010. A post or comment below will earn you an entry. If you blog about the giveaway and link to it, then come back and post a link to your post, you'll earn a second entry (I guess one post sharing your memory and linking to the giveaway will earn you two entries). We'll randomly pick a winner on or after noon 31 Jan JST. I hope to post a new giveaway in the first week of each month. . . grace ladies...show me grace. ::snort::
If you are selected as a winner, you will have one week to send me your home address. I will not store your address in any form. I cannot even find my personal address book since our move. ::snort::
You do not have to be a blogger to enter. Leave your thoughts in the comment section to earn an entry. I reserve the right to discontinue Giveaway or change the rules at any time.
Have fun!
JOSIAH & JAMIN ARE HOME!
Choosing Joy!
©2010 D.R.G.
~Coram Deo~
Living all of life before the face of God...
19 comments:
I am not a big lover of snow. I think my fascination with snow ended in 1982. The year we got what we considered a blizzard in St. Louis. I remember our school was always the last to close and that day was no exception. They decided to wait till the busses had delivered us to school to close. Took hours to make it back home. We did have a lot of fun building snow forts and jumping off the deck into the deep snow. But I since that winter, I just have not been as into snow. I guess I got my fill. LOL
But, I do enjoy taking the kids out sledding now and making hot cocoa to warm them up when we get home. We don't get a lot of snow that stays around long here in St. Louis, so it doesn't happen often.
We love snow days. Days when we get lots of snow - we shovel, build forts and then run over to the sledding hill!! It is great fun. And my youngest is now thrilled I have found hot chocolate he can have - that with a few marshmellows is a perfect ending to a wonderful snow day. Thanks for going this! What a wonderful idea. Hope I win.
What a FUN IDEA!
I do love snow!! When I was young, we would travel at Christmas to go to our families out in Western Kansas. It would blizzard every year just as were leaving. So, my four siblings and my parents would all be crowded into the front of our van and we all had sections of the road we had to watch. We were watching for the side of the road, the middle line, etc. The snow was blowing so heavily that we couldn't see very far in front of us. One year we had to stop at a roadside motel and beg for a room! I miss that much snow!
My favorite memory of the snow is really of the ice. We had a terrible ice storm last winter that knocked out power for upwards of 2 weeks for some. Many people remember this storm with distaste and disgust, but for me it was a very special time because of the way so many people came together to work to remove all the fallen limbs, trees, and debris from yards, roads, and rooftops. We were blessed enough to help do this as a family - with our kids coming with us daily to help elderly and disabled people who could not do such cleanups themselves.
The storm showed the amazing power of the Lord - not in the destruction it caused but in the unity it created. I saw servant hearts born and nurtured. I saw Christlike behavior abounding and it warmed my heart more than I can describe.
When I was little, we lived in Utah and had plenty of snow in the winter--there was a great sledding hill near my grandparent's home, and grandma always had hot chocolate for us when we came in. When we moved overseas, I missed the snow. We didn't live somewhere with enough snow for sledding again until we moved to Austria when I was 16. There we lived right next to the Vienna Woods, and that is where my favorite snow memory comes from. The best sledding hill was a nice sloping meadow, about half a mile from the house and the trail to get there was uphill all the way. We dragged our plastic sleds up and had a wonderful time in the meadow, but the best part was the trip back home. I took a little sister on my lap, we got on the sled, and slid all the way down the packed snow on the path, fast! The longest and best sled ride of my life.
For having never lived anywhere that has snow much, I have a few snow stories.
One year when I was about 15 we had an ice storm in Oklahoma. As it melted it turned into a snow-like subtance :) . My best friend and I went and got one of her mom's square tupperware bowls, and started building us a 3 sided fort out of snow bricks. We built it up as high as our heads.
Another time my little brothers (well, younger brothers, they are much taller than me now) built a 9foot snowman. That was pretty cool.
Another year we were in Ohio for my cousins funeral. Some other cousins and my brothers and I went sledding down a big hill behind my uncle's house. We were sledding on innertubes, so it was fun to spin around while going down the hill. Well, at the bottom of the hill were some fence posts still up from where there had once been a fence. As I was nearing the bottom of the hill one time, I started to turn so I could see where I was, because if you didn't stop soon enough you would slide into the creek. Right as I got sideways my head found one of those metal fence posts. I had a horrible black eye at the funeral and in my paranoid way, I was afraid people would think my parents beat me. So I would tell anyone that looked at me what happened.
Cute giveaway!
My favorite snow memory was when visiting New Mexico for Spring Break. While we were staying at a retreat center in the mountains, they received the largest recorded snow (30 inches). Looking around at everything was so beautiful, even if it was incredibly difficult to walk in!
One of my favorite memories is after living in Hawai'i (our second tour) we moved to south central Pennsylvania. Our first winter there the kids had a blast! There was a terrific hill for sledding where we lived on the Navy Depot. The kids *spraypainted* murals in the snow using spray bottles filled with food coloring and water. They also made *portraits* of themselves: they laid in the snow and carefully got up and *painted* their clothing onto their body impressions in the snow(against using spray bottles with food coloring) and used bird seed and sunflower seeds for hair, beards, black shoes, etc. Afterwards they came in, watched a winter movie while their ski bibs and gloves dried and had popcorn and hot cocoa.
MONTANA! What a beautiful place to be raised.
When I was in elementary we had very cold weather and lots of snow. We use to put newspapers inside our boots to help keep warm. The buses only drove students from 'out of town' to school and the rest of us bundled up and walked. However, the cold did not stop all of us from jumping off Custer's monument whenever we could. We also had so much fun making angels in the snow. We use to pile the snow up to have snowball fights. All the adults just would pass us buy, smile and wave.
We would go a ways out of town to the hills and sled down these hills, innertube, or ski. When I was in 2nd grade my older taught me to ski. I was doing real good and loving it until..... I fell into a very large cactus bush... even as late as June I was still picking needles out of my knees. Never skied after that......... but continued to have fun in the snow anytime I find it.
When we kids got older we played dangerously with our cars on the ice under the snow. This was not the smartest thing we ever did but it was fun. Looking back one has to thank God for his protection.
I really do miss the snow and blizards!
Sis don't enter me this time, ok! love/prayers --- Mom T.
i am a "blog lurker"! I found your blog through stephanie strange (her brother-in-law is my husbands uncle lol) your family amazes me, i am so inspired by yalls faith. my husband and i are stationed in hawaii, wish we could have met when you were here!
anyway i am from texas so i dont have too many snow memories, but i do remember one year it snowed (or slushed lol) on new years day and all the kids on my block got together and had a giant snowball fight. so much fun!
Honestly-I hate snow! Except for Christmas Day. It can start on Christmas Eve @ 11:59PM and it must be over at 11:59PM Christmas Day! :)
Sis, I'm not entering your contest this month, but I'm commenting, because it's fun to share a memory. I was raised primarily in snow country in western Wyoming. May favorite snow memory isn't from winter, it's from summer. I woke one July 4th morning and looked out my window to find steers pawing through snow looking for the green grass they had grazed the day before! That was literally the "coolest" summer & snow day for me.
Hey Mom...
1st off just to let you know I never made it off the bunny hill that day either and it is certainly a day that I remember even down to getting pizza when we arrived back in Hardin and listening to carmen on the way.lol Anyway I have never had much luck with the skis but I have found snowboards to be much easier to handle (only one thing to stand on it does not get tangled up) you might try this if you are going to be forced to go down hill skiing again. You would be the coolest mother out there with a snowboard even if you could not use it. Another plus is the ability to sit on the thing and use it as a sled if you get completly stuck...
Some of my favorite memories would be running out and getting fresh snow to make snow ice cream it was always such a treat. Or racing Josiah with the dumpsters in Great Falls (always under the guise of putting the garbage out.)
Oh my WORD, Krista, the very idea of myself on a snow board terrifies me. I do plan to dig out snow shoes tomorrow. Wait until you see all the snow we've had today.
I grew up in the tropics (after 10 winters in Missouri) so the first snow in college at Colorado State was so wonderful! While it was snowing we drove up to a friend's and rode the horses in the moonlight while it was snowing. Surreal!
More recently... We had a white Christmas this year! It was wonderful seeing it through the children's eyes.
Blessings,
Beth
Well, having only lived in either Wisconsin or Colorado all my life, you'd think I'd like snow. But sadly, no. I will share that my best snow memory is the ONE time that I made snowmen with my kids when they were 4 and 6. Okay, it was kinda fun. Oh, wait, I do have a good snow memory. One Christmas eve when I was very low, we were visiting my parents, and we were attending their church for Christmas eve. It was a traditional service. I felt overwhelmed and had let my relationship with God become distant. I prayed silently in the midst of the Christmas carols for God to show me that He was right there with me. When we left church, a beautiful snow was lightly falling, and the air was crisp and beautiful. I knew that God had met me there, and the snow was like a whisper of His Love.
Mary
I grew up in Northern Ohio where we saw a bunch of snow, mostly lake effect, but it was still alot. I remember never getting snow days. It would be nothing to walk out to the end of the driveway to go to school and the snow was taller than I was (unshoveled). I miss those days. We do not seem to get snow like that anymore. I have fond memories of my brother and I building snow forts, having snowball fights, and building snow families. We do not get to see snow that much anymore as we have been stationed in warm locations. A few weeks ago it snowed a few inches here in Korea. I guess it was the biggest snow here for quite a few years. It brought back a lot of happy memories and my girls were able to actually play in it.
What a wonderful giveaway! We are studying World Cultures this year and we just had a wonderful study of Japan. These would definitely be a fun thing to use at our TOG unit celebration coming up if we win.
My favorite snow memories surround my three sons. They invented this game called "snow tussling" where they do some sort of wrestling and acrobatics at the same time. One will sort of catapult the other up into the air and then they land in a pile of snow...hopefully. It cracks me up every time.
We also have a new lab puppy that tunnels in the snow and looks sort of like a submarine with her tail up over the snow and her head and nose down under the snow. She will also chase snowballs as long as you will throw them.
Our snow is all melted (Northern CA) at the moment but we hope to head up the mountain to snowboard on Thursday.
Thanks for the opportunity to enter the giveaway and for all your Japanese experiences you share here on your blog. :) We especially love the funny car names.
Barb-Harmony Art Mom
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