Christmas Update

Merry Christmas, one and all! I got a trip to the dentist because being responsible is sometimes no fun and a ticket to see Wicked because musicals are always fun. Also, the baby sister and I have been bursting into Wicked duets at the drop of the hat for the past month.

SCENE: AT THE DINNER TABLE
Brother: Don't make me laugh!
Baby sister: ♫ Think of celebrated heads of state, or specially great communicators! Did they have brains or knowledge ♫
Me: ♫ Don't make me laugh! They were POPULAR! Please! It's all about popular. ♫
Father: I was reading an analysis in the Wall Street Jounral...
Me: ♫ Don't be offended by my frank analysis! ♫
Baby Sister: ♫ Think of it as personality dialysis! ♫
Entire family: No seriously, we will kill you.
Me: Elphaba - why couldn't you have stayed calm for once, instead of flying off the handle!
Baby sister: ♫I hope you're happy! I hope you're happy now. I hope you're happy how you've hurt your cause forever. ♫
Me: ♫ I hope you think you're clever! ♫

We also made and decorated approximately seven million sugar cookies to give out as Christmas gifts. After the third hour of decorating cookies, my brothers and I tried to storm out, but we were snowed in and there was nothing but sugar cookies. Endless sugar cookies. I will admit, however, that the end results were pretty cool looking.


There are stores about the individual cookies here. (Scroll over the picture for the notes.) I made a Kirk and Spock cookies, because I'm a giant dork. Later that evening, I was reading while my parents were talking about the cookies and I heard my dad say, "...those two gay guys that Cait made." And then I fell out of my chair laughing. Oh Dad, if only you knew.

Life in a Norman Rockwell Painting

The storm has pasted, leaving us blanketed in a scene straight out of a Boy's Life cover. Saturday morning my sister and I built a snowman and hiked down the road to see how snowed in we were before returning home for fresh baked banana bread. We made hot cocoa in a pot on the stove and baked sugar cooked. Mom and I played card games, while my dad and sister made a Brio train track around the Christmas tree, then the whole family headed back out into the snow to go sledding. We had a roast chicken for dinner. And then Norman Rockwell came and threw up all over us because the scene was to picturesque even for him. (Granted, a Norman Rockwell painting never featured my brothers shouting about how I had to take pictures of them sledding down their snow ramp so they could have awesome Facebook photos of them catching air, but you have to allow adjustments for new technology.)

Today the whole family partook in the age old tradition of shoveling snow so we could get the car out of the driveway. The verdict: we are no longer officially snowed in, but I'm not sure I'm brave enough to drive on our one lane snow and ice covered dirt road, especially not since my dad fish tailed the entire way to the main road. At least we have power again. It still looks like this outside, so I guess I'm okay with being a homebody for the next few days:

Appalachian Snowfall

Good News: It snowed today!

Bad News: It snowed *a lot* today and down here in the Land of Cornbread and Dixie, we are not exactly equipped to handle lots of snow, even in the mountains.

Good News: At the last measurement, we had six inches of snow. I've never seen this much snow in my life!

Bad News: Snow on trees means trees on power lines. We lost power around noon.

Good News: We have a generator!

Bad News: Of course, the generator can't power the entire house. We don't have lights in half the house and the oven, washer/dryer and microwave don't work. We also don't have heat in the upstairs (where the bedrooms are), but that matters less since we're going to turn off the generator at midnight to save power. It's going to be cold tonight.

Good News: At least we have enough power to have a Star Wars marathon this evening. (Oh Han Solo, BE MINE!)

Bad News: While we still have some power, the nearby jail does not.

Good News: This might mean our power will be fixed in the next few days, instead of the current wait time, which is "indeterminate".

Bad News: The JAIL has NO power. I guess those people in orange jumpsuits aren't from the power company?

Good News: The weather is perfect for playing outside. It's not too cold and the snow is light and fluffy, which means we could stay outside for hours without getting frozen.

Bad News: A game of snow football gone awry resulted in my brother and I colliding and banging heads.

Good News: There were lots of cold things to press against the instant goose egg that appeared.

Bad News: My head still aches, bad enough that I can't chew and can only eat soup, and I'm not allowed to go to bed due to a possible concussion.

Good News: It looks like this outside:




The full set of photos are here, with more to come tomorrow once it stops snowing.