A Snowy Christmas Eve and a Special visit

This morning we were supposed to wake up and finish cleaning the house for my parents and sister to arrive at noon. Well, with the Snowmageddon of 2009, they were stranded in Chicago. No worries though because they are staying with my Aunt and Uncle and enjoying the Dinanno family party, which we only attend about every 5 years. Fingers crossed that their flight tomorrow doesn't get cancelled.

So here's our backyard this morning:

Now keeping Penelope happy inside all day is quite difficult. That's why we often do trips to the library, grocery store, the park if it isn't too cold etc. But we didn't want to drive anywhere today. I have started getting daily emails from a site called Productive Parenting which has great ideas for all sorts of activities at every age. I wish I had known about it a year ago. My imagination doesn't go much further than banging wooden spoons on pots. The email today said 1 year olds like to crawl through and sit in boxes. So I set up a box for Penelope and tried to show her how it's done:
Yeah, I got stuck. Here I am laughing "oh my gosh! Why are you taking pictures?" And yet I'm posting them on the blog....ah well, is meant to be a record of all of our adventures.

Here's Penelope very unsure of following Mommy's lead. I could get her to reach in and grab the toy but she was not going in that box. So much for an afternoon of fun!
By noon, I had a very cranky baby on my hands. Chris was shoveling the driveway. He's crazy about shoveling. It is like a competition between him and the neighbors. Anyways, I decided Santa's gift was going to come out of the garage a day early. A toddler sled!!

Let me tell you how much I bundled her up for this. Onesie, long sleeve shirt, cordoroys, snow pants, thick socks, shoes (I tried to put these big boots over her shoes, but it didn't work), snow jacket, cut up tights over her hands, 1 mitten and 1 sock...couldn't find the 2nd mitten. We are in the "I like to pull everything out of my drawers and throw them in a pile every day" stage. Things get lost... She loved it, even if we our time sledding was less than the time it took to get ready. I don't know why I went so crazy. It was 31 degrees.

Of course, a video is required of her first time sledding!

Then here's Penelope in her Christmas pajamas!

Around noon I got an email from a dear friend, Nikki. We were friends for years in Arizona. We grew apart in high school and then I moved. The last time we saw each other was my going away party 12 years ago. Ugh! 12 years?! Anyways, I happend to see her post on another friend's blog and we reconnected. Her grandfather lives in Minnesota and she has lots of relatives here. I wasn't sure if we'd get to see each other when she visited so I was ecstatic when I got her email that they could come over tonight. A big thank you to Mr. Cech for driving in the snow! It was great to reconnect with her and her dad and to meet her husband, and adorable son Collin. Just check out this little guy!

Adorable, huh? Hard to believe Penny was smaller than this last year. He was all smiles and a giggle box.

We had a great time catching up! I wish we still lived 2 streets away now that we are mommies. We'd have a book club and make baby food together and go to the Y swimming class (have I convince you to move here yet?!) Then Penelope could go jump over the fence to go visit Collin like I used to do to see Nikki.