Christmas is coming, but where is the snow?

Anna wrote Christmas lists for both she and Elizabeth today. Can you decipher them?

Elizabeth:
1. papre
2. hana montanu
3. prisesis
4. snow wid

Anna:
1. a dance mat (that was easy)
2. a per av soows

Hooked on phonics worked for us, apparently. Well, kind of.

Other than that, we have been battling the weather. I am ready for Christmas snow, but I don't think its coming. I guess that I will be content with freezing rain and frost that takes 45 minutes to chip off your windshield. (We learned after our first windshield beating that there is stuff that you spray on your windshield that melts it off in about 2 minutes.) Thanks, kind neighbor man.

Our other adventure in weather has been with the leaves. Growing up in Montana (evergreen trees) and spending the last 10 years in the desert known as Utah, I could never have fathomed the issues of living in an area that has substantially more leafy trees than people, or bugs, or blades of grass, or sands of the sea. You get the point. Since the neighborhood leaf-bagging guys missed about 90% of what was in our yard, the kids and I went out with a rake to tackle the knee-high, moisture-filled, now-brown-and-suspicious-smelling leaves. We were quite sure that our box elder bug problem had a distinct connection. (Incidentally, we were right) We had a wonderful time, Anna helping me to bag five bags of leaves from our 4 foot by 6 foot "yard," while Elizabeth played "Ariel on the rock."

In the middle of our leaf-piling, bug catching expedition, we were informed by our neighbor guy (different one, but equally nice) that he had seen our toil, called the leaf guys, and they were coming back until "every leaf in your neighborhood is gone." The leaf guys, absent for four weeks, made an amazing appearance today, called me ma'am, and did a hat-tipping bow thing. Wow. I wonder if they will hunt down all of the box elder bugs too.