We got up here safely and Teresa got her white Christmas. There was ice and snow on the ground when we got here on Saturday morning. Sunday it rained from 2am until 7pm when we sat down to dinner. At 7pm it turned to snow. Teresa lit up (thought she wouldn’t admit it) because that was all she wanted to see. She wanted to see the snow falling and laying on the ground. I’m very happy that she got what she wanted. Today is cold but there is little snow left on the ground. Lots of ice but little snow. Christmas eve I took the girls out to do some last minute shopping. They almost sapped the last vestiges of any holiday cheer out of me but I was cheered up when we got back home and found that Jerry and Teresa had gone in to the back yard and cut down a small tree and put up a string or two of lights. That sad pathetic tree is probably the best tree I’ve had in years. I also got to do something I’ve thought about for years. We were still on the road when the solstice took place but I went with the spirit of the event rather than the details (only because I was too late for the true event). Lizzy has horses up here at the house so on Christmas Eve I filled one of my hunting boots with hay, sugar cubes and an apple for Sleipnir. I try to sneak in a little old school tradition when I can.
Becca pointed out something interesting. Mostly she pointed out to her mother that she is every bit as cynical as I am and that it is becoming a problem… She was listening to the lyrics to “Do You Hear What I Hear” and the line says “a baby shivers in the cold, we shall bring him silver and gold.” Becca just looks up and says, “Wouldn’t a blanket be a better gift? I mean even if he got the silver and gold to buy one, most stores are closed on Christmas Eve anyway…” Why is it that I get into trouble whenever Becca pops out a gem like that one?
I’ve watched a lot of the Christmas movies these last few weeks. The old Rankin/Bass claymations, a lot of newer “classics”, just about every incarnation of “A Christmas Carol” and a lot of the older classics. I had to explain “It’s a Wonderful Life” to Becca because she’s never seen it before. Bad Daddy… But we watched the animated “Frosty” and “Frosty Returns”. About five minutes in I realized what was bugging me about “Frosty Returns”. Aside from the obvious like a snowman abducting a little girl and taking her to the North Pole… Frosty didn’t have (not ONCE) his trademark corncob pipe. I guess it’s wrong to smoke in front of the kids. I also watched both incarnations of “Miracle on 34th St.” back to back. I’ve never seen the entire new version before and I’ll never watch it again. They couldn’t resist drawing obvious parallels between faith in Santa and faith in God. It was horrible. Right down to the ending where they took out the post office letters and replaced them with a single dollar bill with “In God We Trust” circled on it. I thought it was one of the worst recreations of a classic I’ve ever seen.
But we’ve been lazing around the house today just playing in the snow (mostly ice now) and sleeping in front of the television. Teresa got her white Christmas and all is well. When we get home Teresa will give me some of the over 2Gs of pictures/video she took so far and I’ll put them up here. We are planning on driving home Thursday and being home by Friday. We’ll see how long that lasts. Once Teresa gets up here we always end up staying longer than we expected because she never wants to leave. Odds are that we’ll pull into town just in time for school/work next week. Oh well, that’s why we’re here. Merry Christmas everyone, we’ll see you soon.
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