Oh no. Don't let it snow snow snow.....

So everyone was bemoaning the lack of snow for Christmas. Guess what happened yesterday...mega snow. WE HAVE SNOW. More snow than we needed or wanted. The news expected up to 10 inches of accumulation. We may have gotten that, but with the wind as it is, most of it has blown off to parts unknown. And it didn't come alone. Wind came with it. They are pretty close companions around here. Their best friends are Mayhem and Road Rage.

This morning we had to shovel our van out of a snow drift...the driver tried several times before she finally got it stuck really well. The guys in my house made me so proud by working till we got it loose. The driver jumped in, backed out of the drift area, gunned the engine, and promptly buried it in a different drift. Grrr...
but wemanaged to extract her from that one, too.

Aside from that, we've have below zero temperatures and terrible wind chill. We stayed inside for the majority of the day, and are beginning the weekend with movies and popcorn. I'll be going home for FOUR DAYS!!!...if I don't get stuck in a snow drift myself somewhere.

Merry Christmas to All!

I've got to work this Christmas week, starting tonight, so I'll do my posting now. I'm finished with gift wrapping and shopping, and if I missed anyone, I'll try to catch up for birthdays.

O called me this morning, and we wished each other a happy Christmas. I miss him. But we are both well and happy and employed, so those are blessings to be thankful for this year. I have a home that is nearly paid for, too, with a payment low enough to be made even in the event that I become unemployed. Porter is snoozing on my bed with the electric blanket turned on LOW, and he's not even snoring. So, YEAY! Life is good!

My daughter will be coming out on the 26th to attend the wedding of one of my nephews on the 28th, and bringing the boyfriend who apparently is so excited to come he is beside himself. I'll be glad to see and - really - happy to meet him. I will probably only see them at the rehearsal dinner and the wedding (damn those 24-hour shifts!), but that will be alright. I have no vacation yet, but am free to attend both events, as long as I take my "loquitos" (little crazies, as O calls them) with me. Luckily, the little crazies are invited to both events too.

We haven't had snow yet, but I'm okay with that while I'm driving the 50 miles to work. After I get there for the week, it can snow, snow, snow! So I hope you all have a beautiful white Christmas if your're hoping for one, and drive safely if you're traveling!

Step into my china cabinet

I love my china cabinet. It's not an old family heirloom or an antique. I think it's just a cheap copy of something more expensive. But I have a few significant things in there that hold sentimental value.

You've seen some of them before - the little Peruvian dudes (there's another one over to the right)...

...and maybe some you haven't seen, like the tall celebratory glass (I once read that the taller and thinner the glass, the more you think you're drinking, but you really are not. I think it has more to do with the taste of the drink than anything else for me. But that's what the psychologists and diet experts say anyway). Anyway, O and I had a set of very similar glasses that we drank our champagne from when we got married in Trujillo. They were stolen from the table immediately after we drank our wedding toast to each other. Everything was stolen. we have nothing to remember our wedding, except a video tape and 3 photographs. Seven years later, I discovered the cake topper from our wedding cake on the coffee table of one of O's friends. It still had our names written on the bottom of it. Aaaaah yes, life in Peru...
...the green glass creamer that my dad gave me from my mom's stuff and the teapot that I saw in Pier One and just had to have although I have only had one cup of tea from it since I got it 5 months ago...
...the tea pot and little set that came with it that I bought from a lady at the farmer's market this summer when I had money burning a hole in my pocket, and the souvenir wine glass from my daughter's high school graduation party...
...the cardinal ornament from Hobby Lobby that I bought because "Cardinals Rule" when I should have been shopping for someone else, and the dishes that my parents found for me in a flea market on the south end of College in Ft. Collins, because they knew I loved the pattern and it had been discontinued. They said it was fun to find them...I think the hunt is often
more fun than the actual find. They found enough of them that my daughter now has almost a complete set, too!

There's an incense burner that my daughter sent me for my first Christmas in Lima, and a stick of my favorite incense, Drrrragon's Blood (affecting an Irish brogue).

If you enlarge the last photo, you'll see a little pink petal dish; I think it's meant to hold a tea light. That's also from my mom's stuff that my dad couldn't look at without crying after she died. And the last little item is a tiny, lidded pottery dish that I found in a second hand store after I returned to Cheyenne and discovered that I needed clothes but had no money to speak of. I splurged and bought it for 50 cents.

Next time I'll post pictures of some mittens that I've been working on for my daughter's boyfriend. He's from Houston and has never seen snow. They're coming out for a wedding at the end of the month. It's December and freezing here every night and most mornings. His thought is, "How cold can it be?" Well, let me tell you, dear man... :o)

Adult conversation, please...

Me: Okay! Everyone, let's go get groceries. Hop into the white van!

Them: The white van? This one is a little dark, but maybe it's white under the brown paint.

Me: The white van, everyone! Follow me to the WHITE VAN.

Them: Follow you? I thought you said to go to the white van.

Me: Yes, follow me. I'm going to the white van.

Them: I thought WE were supposed to go to the white van.

Me: Yes! Go to the white van.

Them: Then what?

Me: Then we're going to get groceries.

Them: Groceries?! Hey I want to get groceries, too! Can I go?

Me: Yes you can.

Them: Are the groceries in the white van? Where are we going? Are you going with us?

Me: See the white van? Go get in there.

Them: Are we going somewhere?

Me: Yes, we're going to get groceries.

Them: Which van should we get in?

Me: Get in the white van.

Them: The white van is a Ford. The brown van is a Chevy.

Me: You're right.

Them: Soooo, what are we doing today? Do you think that brown van is a Chevy?

Me: Yes, the brown van is a Chevy, but go get in the white van.

Them: Don't you like Chevy vans?