'Twas The Night Before

The winter storm has (hopefully) done its worse and we are still here -- minus a few hours of power today and the tops of a couple of trees that were overtaken by snow. I got a little bit of reading done while sitting on the floor by the window for light. I should have been making our traditional Christmas Eve chili or baking the cakes for our peppermint chocolate confection. Instead, I sat down with Dickens and spent some time in chilly Victorian England as the temperature in our own house dropped.

Now, the heater is on, we are all full of chili and Z is in bed, wearing the new pajamas that his Gramma makes him each year and hoping that his first letter to Santa was received and read. I sit here watching A Christmas Story and enjoying the amusing and pathetic view of our "Charlie Brown"-style Christmas tree. We never had the opportunity through all of this weather to buy a tree so we went in the yard today and cut down a scrawny nine-footer. It has about four levels of branches in eight feet and can't support more than a few light-weight ornaments. It's perfect.

Wishing everyone the best possible,
K and Z