The Frozen Tundra and The Frozen Mama

Its been busy here. Last night Dh and I threw a Christmas party for all of his staff and his boss. It was a success. I made jambalaya (which was a huge hit), homemade mac-n-cheese for his boss who apparently loves it and the kids, made my firecracker roll ups and they were devoured, and lots of treats and goodies. Everyone arrived soaked last night as it was blowing sleet and snow and gusting pretty hard, but inside was nice and warm and I think a good time was had by all.

This morning after a little cleaning up from the party, we decided to go out and play in the snowy tundra. Both Bella Roo and A needed the run. A has had a cold all week and is finally well, and on top of that it has been downright nasty many days this week, and we did not get out, so I had 2 kiddos full of energy and ready to let loose.

It was beautiful!
The best of friends.









Water! Bella, like all labs, LOVES water.
Here's Roo right before she fell into the a deep pool.

She went under, it was much deeper than expected, and came up and swam to the edge, but the ice kept breaking. She panicked and grabbed onto the ice edge and just held on. I of course decided that this "water dog" (as DH keeps reminding me all day LOL) needed saving. I had the brilliant idea to just walk on the snow, lean and reach over the ice, grab her collar, and help pull her up. Well, the brilliant idea did not take into account that the "snow" I would be standing on was actually the frozen river covered with a layer of oh so deceptive snow. I took a step and down I went. Up past my waist, almost to my chest in frigid water, the dog and I both thrashing about, ice surrounding us, as I grabbed her collar and pulled us out. Dh was none to pleased that I "jumped in" unnecessarily and didn't just go to a shallower part and call her and have her swim to me. My thought process did not go there. I just saw her panicked eyes and acted. My camera was on my neck and too a very brief swim, but is luckily ok, or dh may have really killed me LMAO! Our snow outing was cut short since I couldn't very well stand outside soaking wet in freezing temperatures for long, so home we went. I still say Bella thinks I saved her life :) A and Dh, well they disagree and have been riding me all day LOL.

A was not happy that I cut her snow eating short (yes, she likes to eat snow), so she grabbed a big chuck for the ride home LOL.
Overall, a fun day with a story to tell. I can say that is the coldest water I have ever felt! It took me quite a while to stop shaking. I had to wring out my snow pants, jeans, boots, and socks to even come in the house. Me thinks next time I should assess the situation before acting,...yeah, that would be a good idea LOL.

Merry Christmas everyone! With a little luck, my mom will be landing on our island sometime tomorrow afternoon to spend 2 weeks with us! I can not wait and just pray the weather holds.

All my Christmas presents are finished and now I can actually catch up on all the things I have been wanting to post about. Stay tuned :)