The Year of the Horse

So another Chinese New Year is here, and it is time for the Year of the Snake to slither off.  It was a bad year for many, but not so much for us.  Sure, there were a few moments we'd rather not face again, but on the whole we were blessed as always.  Our daughter is healthy and happy, as you can see in the photo above.  It's an annual tradition now, taking a picture of Madison and sending it out for the Chinese New Year greetings.  This is the sixth one, which means we're halfway through the zodiac.  Six more, and we'll have a complete set of photos - and I'm quite content for us all to take our sweet lovely time on that.

Before the snake slithered off, Daddy must have gotten bitten.  Today was a sick day with lots of sneezing and tissues and things like that.  This may have been a result of too much playing in the snow,  however you can also chalk it up to "it's that time of year."

Nana and Ba-Ba made a break for it this morning, deciding to escape while they could!  They made it back to Florida just fine, which was great news.  Meanwhile, Daddy was working towards getting everything ready for Sunday's service.  Madison, however, was not at school again.  This was unexpected.  The roads seem okay where we are - no ice or snow.  There are, of course, accumulations of snow here or there, but the roads where we are seem passable.  Apparently, elsewhere there are places where travel is questionable.  Either that, or everyone is paranoid.  There are a lot of folks pointing fingers as to who it is that is "guilty" for the massive traffic jam on Tuesday, where people spent twelve hours or more stuck in traffic.  Children were spending the night at schools, due to the slow reaction time of school administrators.  Which again, was due to the fact that nobody saw this coming.  Only at the last minute did the meteorologists start saying this might turn northward - that was Tuesday morning.  Up until then, the refrain heard over and over again was a slight dusting, if anything.  Of course, now the meteorologists are putting out their disclaimers saying, "We did warn you."  But the fact that 8 million people went to work, and 8 million people all saw what was going on outside their windows, and 8 million people all left to go home all at the same time is a strong indication that there was clearly a failure in communication about the forecast.

Again, we were not stuck in the fray at all.  We were blessed.  But there were plenty of individual stories, where you can use the word "harrowing" without feeling like you are exaggerating.

It's still been cold too.  Olaf, our snowman, is still hanging in there, not melted yet.  He's not even really affected at this point, hanging out in the shade, where the temperature has stayed around freezing.  That is supposed to change a little tomorrow, as the temperature will rise and we will probably see all the snow melt.

So here we are, galloping into a new year.  It was nearly a false start, with both Mommy and Daddy feeling under the weather - and some technical glitches in our "Friday Night Live" broadcast on our website.  It took about an hour to get it on the air, and Mommy and Madison were there watching it on the computer when it was all said and done.  This month's episode featured our groundhog puppet, which you'll see again on Sunday.  The big day is coming up:  Groundhog Day!  Now there's one rodent that won't let you down on the forecast, eh?