Ice Skating and tobogganing

This week there was a huge blizzard in Santa Fe. It dumped tons of snow on the city and even more in the mountains. So we decided that it was time to build a snowman. We invited some friends, the Chapels,  out to play in the snow on saturday but then they heard that it was free skate day at the local community center so we decided to do that instead.  Miranda was very confident stepping out onto the ice with a teacher. After a moment she became nervous so we went out to help her.

Miranda clings to daddy after she decided the ice was too slippery on saturday morning.

Miranda did eventually get to skating at the end, with lots of encouragement, watching other kids, teachers help, and mom & dad's help. Apparently they do this free skate lessons twice a year. I'll be looking for it in August/September.

A shot of the roads when I went to pick up Tod from work, cause they kicked everyone out early. The trip took over 45 minutes, from my friends house (which is closer than my house) when it usually takes about 20 from our house. Nearly no one in Santa Fe knows what to do when it snows and they don't have the right tires.

Another shot of the 'blizzard' at our friends home on friday. This was all in a matter on half an hour.

After Skating we then decided we still wanted to play in the snow so we went tobogganing at Hyde Park. There was a ski rental shack that had a big tobogganing hill behind it. It was a beautiful spot.

Tobogganing hill, saturday afternoon. When I stood on the sides that weren't compacted from walking or sliding it was knee deep. I'm super thankful for fleece lined leggings!  

She's all tuckered and ready to go home after going down a couple times, once with mom and once with dad.
She got lots of snow spray in her face on the ride with me. Oops.

Tod tried to take a video of Miranda and I together so that I can be in one of our family photos but Miranda was all done. I'll see if I can get it from Tod's phone and post it.

In Miranda's evening prayers before bed she said she was thankful to play in the snow with her friends and to please bless she doesn't get snow in her face again.

May the force be with you (and us) this year.

Of my New year's resolutions one is to write more on the blog even if it's just a picture. :)

To celebrate the new year we went to see Star Wars, Episode VII: The Force Awakens.  I really enjoyed it.  Highly recommend going to see it.  We even ran into some friends when Miranda and I went out for a popcorn refill.

Reasons for going today: yesterday when we arrived at the theatre the show was all sold out, so we bought tickets for today, Tod and I wanted to introduce the next generation to the Star Wars series, and I figured we could use a bit of the force to kick off our 2016!

Quidi Vidi Pewter "Jesus, Mary, & Joseph!".

This is a lovely piece of art that Tod and I bought while on our visit with the Coopers to Newfoundland.  Since we started putting up our Christmas decor and this artwork is a Christmas Nativity (or as they say in Newfoundland "Jesus, Mary, & Joseph!") I'm posting some pictures (also at Taralee's request--here you go sis!).

While Taralee and I were shopping downtown (I had to run an errand at the passport office to get my passport!) we found these pieces of art. Taralee had seen them before at a event in the summer but didn't know the name of the artist, or what kind of material it was, and kept hoping she'd see them again. Well, we found them in a shop downtown, and instead of buying from the shop, we went straight to the artist's studio and I picked this piece from all the pieces he had.

You may ask: why 5 photos when one could have done ok?  Because each shows the artwork in a slightly different light, and none of them quite capture the beauty of the "painting" so here's a handful to more fully describe it. I took a couple with flash and a few without flash. Isn't it cool?  It certainly isn't something everyone will own, each piece is unique, and that's what makes it incredible.