Sierra made a gingerbread house at school, and was even more thrilled when I let her and Ethan eat the candy.  :)  She loves 4K, and was sad to be on Christmas break at first, but has settled in well.  Ethan and I have enjoyed having her at home for the last week!  She goes back after the New Year. 

 Merry Christmas!  Our Christmas dinner this year was simple, and the kids thoroughly enjoyed their appetizers of cheese, crackers, and summer sausage, and especially the sparkling cidar!!!  It was the four of us, plus our neighbor that came over last minute when we realized he was home alone while his wife worked.  Andre played on the music team at church all Christmas Eve afternoon.  Dinner then Christmas story then gift opening = a late night for the kids, but so much excitement! We had a lot of fun this year because of their ages. 

So, this has been what we've been stepping over within the last few weeks in our back entry (right by the basement stairs/garage/laundry room...frozen hoses that are thawing out into the bathtub so that Andre can flood the rink.  He can only flood so much before they freeze up and he has to haul them inside, especially with some of the really cold temps we've been having.   

 Last weekend the kids were able to be on boots on one end of the rink.  No skates yet. 

Andre's been busy flooding every chance he gets...often I'll find him out there in the early morning hours (after midnight), holding hoses or setting sprinklers. This week he's at the point of filling up a big trash can lined with plastic and dumping it.  The ice is just about level, and he's hoping that in the next few days he'll be able to get the boards up (currently it's the plastic liner secured onto the PVC frame he built).  He's even gone as far as calculating how many inches of ice he needs before the boards go up, so for you math fans, here are his numbers:

Vertical inches needed – 3

Cubic Inches per vertical Inch – 626,242

Total Cubic Inches required – 1,878,726

Gallons per vertical inch – 2,711

Total Gallons required – 8,133

Gallons per minute out of our hose – 13.3

Minutes needed per vertical inch – 203.8

Hours needed per vertical inch – 3.4

Total Hours of hose time required – 10.2