Family day

We started with a healthy breakfast at McDonald's courtesy of Verizon. [Our refund check from July finally came.] Then off to Wal-Mart, where we split up to shop. Josh and I shopped for Gary and Ellie, and since Josh doesn't really pay all that much attention, I threw in some things for him. And Gary and Ellie shopped for Josh and me. Then we switched kids and did it again.

We had packed a lunch and ate in the parking lot. We then drove into town (Honesdale) for Gary's haircut (he finally found his new barber.) We got there 22 minutes after they closed. No haircut today. We headed home by way of the two houses that have caught our interest, even though we have no intention of actually buying right now. Neither are real winners in the beauty department. We are going more for features besides the house. The one property has a shell of a house, which really deserves to be demolished. But it has nice land. The other is a foreclosure on a busy road. But we still take a look around.

It was a nice day for a drive.

When we got back to Indian Rocks, we stopped to look at the pond. Ellie had been asking to touch ice on the various frozen ponds we passed. So we stopped to check out "our" pond. We ventured out on the frozen water a bit, which the kids enjoyed. We took a walk around it, stopping to check out the ice here and there. There was one spot near the pond where there was standing water that had frozen. I had fun running and sliding on it. The kids wanted to do it too, though they aren't quite masters of their balance yet. Nor do they know how to slide on ice. So I held their hands and we'd run and slide together.

We threw pieces of ice across the pond to see how far we could get them to slide. We chased each other, we pretended to be trees.

We headed home. Lit a fire that eventually smoked us out. Had leftovers, took showers, sang advent hymns, prayed, put the kids to bed. Paid bills, blogged, did dishes, and will put ourselves to bed. Very soon.

It was a great family day. Good night.