Baby, It's Cold Outside

I went out on the front stoop to take a picture of the last sunup sky of 2012 (gasp! how time flies when you're having fun) and this is the best I could do with the row of perfectly clear icicles all along the front of the house.  It's supposed to be a whopping 3 degrees at the turn of the year and zero by 3 AM.  Good thing we're staying snug at home.  Yesterday was the day when DS & DIL1 & Porter, DD & DIL2, Durwood & I celebrated our family Christmas.  The girls got here on Saturday after slipping and sliding the last few miles in the 6+" of snow that fell on Friday.  Durwood made his very popular and super delicious Italian Wedding Soup with a zillion tiny meatballs and I made my almost as celebrated Mufaletta sandwich with a little assembly help from DD.  DS & DIL1 brought homemade guacamole, cream cheese with pepper jelly, and some veggies for game time snacks.  Oh, I simmered a package of turkey little smokies in a little Sweet Baby Ray's BBQ sauce for snacks too.  It was a feast!  St. Nick had left everyone's stockings hanging from the kitchen chairs (no mantle here) with tiny wind-up pets for all.  (St. Nick shopped the dollar bins at Michael's) The big pile of gifts had to wait while the table was cleared for a toy roundup and a little friendly robot war.  Funny how we all revert to childhood when really great (cheap) toys enter the room.  Gifts were doled out and opened and exclaimed over (look what DD made me! she made pretty napkins and a book!), then we ate, then the game started.  DD and I pulled out our knitting while the other four hollered the Packers almost to a win.  At least the loss didn't eliminate the Pack, they get to play the same guys (the dreaded, hated almost as badly as the Bears, Vikings) again next week, but this time it'll be here so I'll get a flyover which we all know is the only part of a football game that I like.  Porter was the perfect house guest, quiet and well behaved, not loud and hollering like her parents.  (did I say that?)  She had borrowed DIL1's Donald Driver t-shirt and wore her Packer collar but even her support couldn't rally the team in the end.  (I never wear team garb, not even just a bandanna to fit in. the only time I did that they lost the Super Bowl. lesson learned)  Today I think the girls plan to go on a Lambeau Field tour, eat deep-fried cheese curds and a burger at Kroll's, and go to Seroogy's for chocolates (DIL2 is well-integrated into the joys of the Frozen Tundra).  Durwood's planning to make ham & cabbage stew for supper.  I plan to stay out of everyone's way and play a hidden object game on the computer.  St. Nick gave everyone (but me, evidently I, uh, he can't count to 6) a game.  DD let me load hers into the Kumquat.  I can't stop playing.  Who knew these things were so addictive?  Help me!

December 31--Kyuichi Uchida, The Emperor Meiji, Kynichi Mutsuhito.  Blood sprayed in an arc across the photo album.  At least Mai thought the tiny, red brown spots were blood.  She remembered sitting on her grandmother's lap when she was very young hearing stories about the last days of the Meiji Emperor.  Grandma smoothed her hand over the photos as she spoke of royal audiences and parties with fantastic foods.

Let me just say that my brain seems to be turned off, at least the creative writing part.  I have high hopes for its reawakening in the new year.  I wish all of my regular readers and those who stumble over this rambling blog the happiest of new years.  Stay safe, stay warm, you are loved.
--Barbara