Christmas Take II

I got my first COVID vaccination on Christmas Eve eve.  I feel so honored to be part of the first wave to receive one!  JP will get his next week, and then we each get a booster in 3 weeks.

Christmas eve morning, my Christmas cards finally arrived!  I spent a good part of the day addressing them.

We had just finished dinner and were cleaning up to get ready to watch a Christmas movie, when the power blinked and went out.  It had been raining for a couple of hours and the temperature outside was dropping fast, so I am assuming that ice was the cause.  We lit every candle we could find, and played some games, and read books out loud to each other until 11:30, when the estimated time for power restoration changed to 9:30 AM Christmas day.

At that point, the girls realized that they weren't getting showers before bed, and JP and I realized that the cats and bunny were going to need different sleeping arrangements with the temps dropping into the teens and no electricity.

I warmed water on the gas burners so the girls could take sponge baths.  We heated bricks on the woodstove, wrapped them in towels and put them in the kitties' box that we moved into the garage, along with a litter box, and their food and water.  We put the bunny in the kitty carrier full of fluffy shavings, and set him up with food and water in the extra bathroom upstairs.

9:30 AM Christmas morning came and went with no power.  I used our gas burner and Amish waffle iron to make eggnog french toast waffles for brunch.  JP got the generator fired up so that we could run the refrigerators for awhile.  J played some Christmas music for us on the guitar, and when we realized that the power wasn't coming back on before lunch, we went ahead and opened presents.  We played a few more games, and looked through our Christmas stash.  Just when we were seriously despairing, the power came back on right before 6 PM. 

We didn't have our special Christmas dinner, or spend the day the way we had planned, but we were extremely grateful for our Mac and Cheese with the lights on and showers before bed.

Today was our Christmas Day (Take II.)  We had homemade cinnamon rolls for breakfast, and our special dinner.  In between, since we had electricity to run the block heaters to start the diesel engines, we could work on cleaning up the 4 inches of snow or so that fell over night.  J and I did some sledding and took a walk through the snow as well.

It wasn't the way we planned it, and we were only slightly uncomfortable, but we were very happy to have a Christmas Take II with lights!

More Snow

We had a lot of fun in the last snow.  It stayed for several days, so we had the chance to play outside for several days.

We built a snowman, and named him Milton.

He only lasted a couple of days.

It was interesting to see the snow slowly slide off of the barn roof.

It seems that we are having winter just a few days at a time this year!

Let it Snow, Let it Snow...

We got at least 8 inches of lovely snow yesterday.  The girls finished their school work in record time, and I moved all my patients to the morning, so that we had time to play in it.  We were out for a couple of hours until we were wet, cold and tired.

It continued to snow during the night, and I went out after dark to take a few pictures.

This morning, everything looked transformed.  The birds were hungry, and after filling the feeders, I sat in the snow and watched them for a while.

The driveway, however, is a bit scary.  Luckily we don't really need to go anywhere, so let it snow!

I ♥ This Season

We actually got our first nice snow of the season over a week ago - about 6 inches!  It didn't last long, but L and I noticed this heart shaped hoof print in the snow on a walk.

We are getting prepared for Christmas here on the ridge.  Our decorations and tree are up.  I am finished with shopping and wrapping gifts (including L's Birthday as well.)  The cards are hung up in the mail somewhere, so they may be a bit late getting out this year.  We are planning on doing our baking next week.

Meanwhile, our state has basically shut down again.  The girls are doing 100% virtual school until mid-January at least.  

I was able to restart quilting lessons last week since my instructor has recovered from COVID.

JP was finally able to get both cataract surgeries done (his second one was postponed for 2 weeks while his surgeon recovered from COVID.)

Those little pumpkin sprouts that I found growing inside my pumpkin at Thanksgiving have become a thriving plant, with tiny pumpkins of its own.

We now have the outdoor wood burner up and running since the nights have been below freezing.  I was checking it morning and evening on my own for over a week because JP had lifting restrictions following his surgeries.  It's nice to walk barefoot downstairs as the radiant heat keeps things super cozy.

Over the weekend, JP and replaced the broken bamboo blinds in the library with a bunch of Van Gogh prints on the pull down shades.  I think it looks pretty nice!

That's all from our neck of the woods right now.  Stay safe!