Week of Wintery Wonders!

Gabi has been with us for one week so far, and the Ohio weather systems are putting on an impressive show for her! For instance, as I am typing this, it is -17C (-32C with the wind chill) outside! If you take -32C, there is a temperature difference of 73C between us, and Liesel's dad's house in Botswana which was 41C today when we spoke to him! So it was not the wisest thing to go outside barefoot to plug in the Christmas lights! But hey, I am from Africa and have really tough feet!


On Tuesday, I took Gabi and Nathan to a stunning location, thanks to a tip from a colleague. We went to Finwood Estate, which belongs to a local town council. Each year around Christmas time, they string millions of lights together and make a magical place for you to bring your family to walk around. Firstly, there are beautiful scenes created with these lights and paths set out for you to explore. Secondly, as you approach the house, there are approximately twenty trains running on cleverly laid out tracks in the front yard. This was Nathan's favorite and despite the freezing rain and snow that was falling, he stood in awe of these miniature machines making their rounds! After a while, I managed to get Nathan to come with us inside the house. As you enter, you see the living room, when a jolly old fellow named Santa was sitting there and listing to children's "want" lists. Each room had the Christmas theme applied, even the bathroom that had a Christmas tree, and some blue lights hidden amongst the "foam", causing a magical glimmer.


After the house inspection, we went to the closed-in garage where we had some free hot chocolate and cookies!

Friday was Gabi's birthday, and again God decided to decorate our yard for her. This time though He didn't choose snow, but rather the rare beauty of an ice storm! So all our plants became encrusted with crystal-like coating. Fortunately it was a mild ice-storm so there was no damage caused. But none-the-less, it is still a beautiful sight to behold and a once in a lifetime treat for Gabi!


Later that morning, we took Gabi to the Cheesecake Factory for lunch. This restaurant always lives up to its reputation for serving up incredible meals, and never disappoints! Gabi had a Thai Chicken dish, Lee had a pizza and a salad, and I had the orange chicken dish. We all ordered Cheesecake for dessert, but had to take it home with us to enjoy later as the serving sizes always deny us the opportunity to partake in post entree delicacies!


The temperatures started their nosedive through Saturday, so we wisely chose to stay indoors for most of the weekend. This gave me some time to become creative with Nathan's Lego, and made him a very cool fire engine (even if I do say so myself). To me there is nothing more satisfying than having a picture in my head and then using the various Lego bricks to bring my imagination to life! Needless to say, Nathan loves it too :)

On Saturday night, we took a drive through Crocker Park, to show Gabi (and Nathan) the holiday lights and huge Christmas Tree! It was another worthy display of lights that we love at this time of year!

On Sunday - we braved the frigid air and headed for Church. Afterwards Liesel treated us to a delicious roast for lunch! Shortly afterwards, I hit Nathan's Lego box again and made him a police car to accompany his fire engine, and ambulance that I had made him earlier.

Now I need to go outside (barefoot again) and switch off the Christmas lights!