Massacre

*Names have been changed to protect the identities of the victims.


It was a grisly scene when I went to visit my dear old friends, the P family*. I knew something was wrong the moment I got there and the door was slightly ajar. I slowly pushed it open, calling their names.

"Mr. P? Mrs. P? Kids? Are you there?" No answer. I was worried.

I walked down the front hall and rounded the corner into the living room. It took me a moment to comprehend what I was seeing. It was awful, like something out of a mob hit. An arm here, a nose there. An ear lying on the ground next to Mrs. P's best hat.



I ran into the next room, desperate to find some sign of life in this massacre. I stopped short, too shocked to take another step. I had found Mr. and Mrs. P lying on the floor, like discarded toys. But what had been done to them was the worst part.

"What kind of sick person has been at work here?" I heard myself say out loud.

Mrs. P's wide, staring eyes had been relocated...to the top of her head. Oh, and the atrocity committed against Mr. P! His ears and eyes were gone, and his remaining arm had been crudely shoved into the spot where his eyes once were.

I went off in search of the kids, praying that they weren't home...or if they had been there while their parents were tortured, were hiding under the bed or in a closet, unfound by the vicious beasts who committed this terrible crime.
My hopes were dashed when I entered the dining room. I found the kids...and the culprits, the perpetrators of evil and mayhem, still up to their dastardly deeds. They were so consumed by their violence that they didn't even notice me at first.

"Hey!" I yelled at the top of my lungs. They looked up at me, shocked that they had been caught red handed.

"What are you doing? Don't you know it's snack time?"

Snow Day!

We got our first 'real' snow of the winter overnight last night and this morning. Of course, C was off of school and while Tim had to be at work for a presentation, he was able to come home early to avoid the ice that was predicted for the evening. Tim took the three older kids outside to play in the snow while B and I watched from the dining room window.



C and L are hiding from Tim and S behind an awesome snow fort! I would have gotten better pictures from a different angle, but that would have meant bundling up myself and the baby and going outside. I chose to live vicariously through them, instead ;-)



While they were playing outside, I decided to make some hot chocolate. My older sister, Susan, gave me a brick of Abuelita's hot chocolate mix that she brought back with her from Mexico where she went to visit her husband's family over the holidays. The whole label was written in Spanish, which wasn't a problem since I can understand it pretty well. The hurdle I had to overcome was that there weren't any instructions on it, anywhere! I decided to just toss the whole thing in there and pour in about 1/4 gallon of milk. It turned out pretty good!



At least, C and S thought so! I love the way the kids look, all rosy cheeked and messy haired when then come in from the outside.