Hot Stuff

Jingle must know about Maddie's love of those hot pepper flakes, because he and Snowflake had a pretty big container for her this morning as a gift.  That should last a few days maybe...!  Seriously, Maddie goes through those hot pepper flakes pretty quickly, dumping them on her pizza in a way that makes you wonder if it was an accident, but no... she has a little pizza with her hot pepper flakes!

It was one of our last mornings of the December pre-Christmas rituals.  I have some fully armed and operation battle stations on my feet now - my last advent calendar pair of socks was today, and they had little Death Stars on them.  Each morning, we all have our routines with the advent calendars - Maddie put together a LEGO Star Wars creation, which of course joined the many others all built and lined up in a snowy landscape beneath the Star Wars tree.  The Obi Wan Kenobi ornament is hanging there now, greeting Maddie as she leaves her bedroom:  "Hello there!"  Today's Marvel Pop figure is a great one, a small Rocket Raccoon gleefully riding a rocket with a little snow cap on.  Maddie has quite a collection of these now, along with the LEGO Star Wars, plus the hot sauces each day too - 25 days of "heat" to try out once Christmas is over with.  But there's another usual advent calendar I keep forgetting about, one with a piece of chocolate in it for each day.  So many advent calendars this year, and then there's Nana's which has a piece of chocolate in it each day too.  She keeps forgetting about that one, or refusing the chocolate until later, which of course never comes.  That calendar is filled with chocolates right now, so we'll all probably eat it all at once sometime after Christmas!

Anyway, it was a good day today.  As is tradition, we got another misdirected package on our front porch. We've got two this year, so we usually go find the right house and pretend we're with the postal service for a moment or two.  I delivered one of these, but today's was actually picked up on our front porch by a neighbor who was canvassing the neighborhood looking for her package.  One service takes a picture of the porch where the item is delivered, so she used her detective skills to deduce the location after a small drive around.  She rung our doorbell just to let us know she wasn't a porch pirate herself.

Tonight was FCY, the last one of the year, and of course the last one before Christmas.  It was a funny theme - a rodeo!  There was a mechanical bull and all kinds of barbecue, and kids were encouraged to dress up in western attire.  Maddie had her boots on, and had a great time hanging out with her friends tonight, one more service before Christmas.  We may see others at Christmas Eve service, but we'll see!

This morning, we had blueberry pancakes for breakfast!  Yes, these are our blueberries from our yard, and they were delicious in those pancakes.  The four of us sat at the table, three of us enjoying our breakfast together.  We really try hard to get Nana to eat food, but she doesn't want to eat, and when she does it isn't much.  She changed the subject, and we all give it a try.  Amongst us, the joke about Ralphie's Mom getting his brother to eat comes up frequently... how does the piggy eat?  

We actually haven't tried that yet, but we've done a lot of other attempts.  Some work sometimes, and others don't.  Mom makes all different kinds of food, but Nana just doesn't want to eat.  She says she's not hungry, and later she says she doesn't want to be a burden on anyone by having them make her food, which of course makes no sense because she's a burden on us because she's not eating.  Nana is being more and more difficult, and Mom's doing her best.  She's the most patient of us all, but she's been upset.  

So today we were watching a lot of Christmas specials and movies while doing some wrapping, and in the midst of that we got a visit from our neighbors who brought along some homemade Christmas snacks.  I've really, really turned the corner on gingerbread.  I don't know if it is an age thing or a nostalgia thing, but I have grown to love that stuff.

The amaryllis that I got back in October is about to bloom... again.  It already bloomed with four beautiful blossoms, but can you believe it's about to do it again?  A new stem has risen, and sure enough, another four blossoms might be coming out just around Christmas time!

Maddie has been watching a Phineas and Ferb marathon during this season, so it stands to reason that today we watched their Christmas special, and the aggressive carolers demanding figgy pudding.  It was a decent day today - we closed it up with reading from our latest Discworld book, and then of course saying our prayers.  Winter is coming very soon, and it is going to be very real to a lot of us very soon.