Happenings

Ug. Gah. Pfft. Bleah.

November and December have been yucky. FINALLY, I feel like I may have been able to brush my teeth enough to get rid of the bad taste of them. You have heard this song and dance so I won't regale you of the stories of conferences and trainings and swimming in pools of work seemingly as deep and vast as the oceans.

Instead I will tell you about the cold snap and the snow in the Deep South that kept us all home from work and school. It was c-c-cooooold. Brrrr. See, we have no infrastructure or snow tires to combat cold weather. They don't even have plane de-icers here. So, with the wonderful packing snow and memories of a childhood in Ohio, I showed the neighborhood children how to roll a ginormous snowball and we made snowmen, snowangels, and a few snowballs were lobbed at anything standing still or moving. Honey taught the children to eat the snow, so when I kept giving Jelly Bean snowballs to throw, he kept biting into them. Oy. The branches held piles of fluffy snow until they cracked and broke. We lost power for 4 days and so slowly slowly made it to Fancyville where my parents have a fireplace and a grill. On the way, we saw no less than 10 people sitting on the side of the interstate, chatting in warm cars and getting out to make snowmen. They had slid off of the road and into the snowy mud and were just stuck.

Or I could talk about the orchestra performance that we attended with Brother. First we went out for delicious treats: Cafe au lai, hot chocolate, Peanut butter cup cake and carrot cake at a cafe. Then we walked through the chilly night air and bits of snow (SNOW!) downtown to the theatre. We sat in the dimly lit balcony and watched the energetic maestro bob, jump and dance; her curly curly hair bouncing to the movement of her cherry red cuffs. I pointed out the piccolos and the oboes. We watched the percussionists mingle with sleigh bells, glockenspiels, and tambourines. It was fantastic and I loved every minute of it. Of course, Brother fidgeted a lot, but really seemed to enjoy it as much as he could for something that didn't involve Pokemon or Mario.

But mostly I want to tell you all how much I missed you and thought of you every single day. I knew I was missing things, but just didn't have the five minutes to peak into the blogosphere to see the goings on. Next week is Hanukkah AND Christmas. Presents are still being procured and I am making fruit baskets for folks this year. It should be good. I am glad for a little break to focus on family instead of the daily grind.