Arctic Blast!

It was so windy last night.  The windmill fell over in the back yard, and even a street sign blew off in the neighborhood.  One of our chairs blew into the back yard a bit, and the power has been flicking off and on.  Mom was up last night and she saw sparks and explosions light up the sky in the distance, possibly transformers but we're not entirely sure.  The wind stayed with us, and what has been bringing here was a super dramatic shift in temperatures.  The term Arctic Blast is certainly appropriate, as I think it's 12 outside at the moment, and very windy.  Of course, it will get scary cold tonight, and the wind will make it worse.  The wind chill factor is supposed to make it feel as low as ten below zero.  Periodically throughout the day, Maddie and I were going out there and breaking the ice in the bird bath and in the water dish too.  Little birds would ice skate across the bird bath in order to find the hole in the ice to drink from.  Mom broke up the clumps of bird food stuck together - it's like a homemade suet, this giant hunk of congealed bird seed.  We kept the bird seed in good amounts out there, helping with the water where we could.  Got some new visitors too!

I went to go put the windmill up again, but one of the blades got stuck in the dirt and brought up with it a big frozen clump.  I'll wait until the weather warms up to the twenties.  In the meantime, the chairs are okay, and the yard is okay otherwise, including that one fallen Christmas tree decoration on the front porch.  I straightened that up, then went to the mail box to collect a few Christmas cards, and then dashed away, dashed away back inside to the warmth of our house.  You can hear things creak and groan outside, complaining of this sudden intrusion of cold.  It was a good day to stay indoors!

We were doing a lot of wrapping today, finishing up Mom's gifts largely.  That took some time.  We had a few movies playing of course while we were doing that, including "Home Alone 3," which isn't quite that bad.  I haven't built up the nerve to try "Home Alone 4" yet, but we're purists, and we have two more unwatched "Home Alone" movies to go if we're to say we watched them all.  The other movies today were "A Christmas Story," of course, which is a lot richer this year, and just gets more and more enjoyable for some reason.  Perhaps it's that the house reminds me so much of my grandfather's house in New Jersey. 

The other movie that we watched was "Hogfather," which is a longer one, but is actually fairly faithful to the book.  And yeah, we watched it because we just read that book.  Maddie said that some things were a lot different in her imagination, and yes, that's true for any book she said.  But still, it was neat seeing one interpretation of the book, and it was neat seeing the author Terry Pratchett make a cameo, and of course it was fun hearing Death go, "HO.  HO.  HO."

This morning was perhaps the last visit from Jingle this year, as I think he goes up to the North Pole tomorrow on Christmas Eve.  He had one last joke for Maddie and us, a running joke from WandaVision so long ago - anytime we saw hexagons, we'd point them out, and suddenly we were seeing them everywhere.  On social media, there's a video series called "Screencrush" where a host and his pet dog talk about current television shows and movies, pointing out Easter eggs and theories, and in any event, the hexagon thing was a big deal to that show too, especially in conjunction with the beekeeper outfit.  This all tied to a famously bad movie with Nicolas Cage screaming "Not the Bees!"  Which is shown over and over again whenever a hexagon is brought up.  And now, for the past few years, whenever Maddie sees a hexagon anywhere, she points it out.  And inevitably, there's also the other battle cry: "Not the bees!"

Nana went to bed, and we had enough energy tonight to play a boardgames again!  Maddie, Mom and I played "A Charlie Brown Christmas," which is somewhat like Chutes and Ladders, but with some action cards that cause further chaos, plus snowball fights and the terrifying "SWAP" spaces.  The game went on and on like a standard "Chutes and Ladders" game, but it was actually pretty fun.  Maddie won, but it could have been anyone by the end.  I was Linus, Maddie was Snoopy, and Mom was Sally.  The cards in the game are really fun, especially if you know the Christmas special as well as we do.

As mentioned earlier, it's bitterly cold tonight.  Mysterious loud pops and cracks in the woods break the silence.  We're under big blankets tonight.  We read a bit from "Mort," and then of course said our prayers.  Maddie's under all her blankets, and in a onesie too.  Mom's in her onesie too, and looks adorable.  Only two more sleeps 'til Christmas!