December is here and the first few days were unseasonably warm. Lest you panic, let me just say that I remember other equally warm early Decembers back into my youth, when we were being hectored to mend our ways or bring on the next ice age. I also remember boot hockey tournaments on Thanksgiving Day, so the bottom line is merely that late Autumn in Minnesota is as unpredictable as early Spring.
The only thing you can count on is that the days are pretty short and not just because there’s so much to do. Now that Daylight Savings Time is over, the sun sets before 5:00 around here and its really hard to keep working once it’s full dark. My eyes see night and my brain thinks “done!” But Jay still won’t be home for two hours so unless I want to make my own dinner, I have to wait.
Saturday, MJ, Meg and I took Nanners, Bean and Tot down to ride the Trolley with Santa! It was a gorgous day in the mid 40s with sunshine and no wind. The trolley car, which runs right behind the street on which we grew up, is all decorated with ribbons and greenery and sure enough, there was Santa! In his red suit and white beard, shaking hands and chatting up the folks waiting in line as the trolley was filled to capacity for each run. It was all very exciting!
We bought our tickets and got in line. I don’t know exactly how many passengers the trolley can on but I’d guess about three dozen. We figured we’d get on in two or three runs.
The runs were a half hour each.
We got there at what is usually nap time for Tot.
There were more people in line than it looked like.
An hour and a half later, we didn’t make the cut for the next ride. I did the math and decided my four-dollar ticket wasn’t worth my entire afternoon.
At this point, Tot was nearly two hours past his nap time and had decided that shoes and socks were for losers. Nanners and Bean were still really excited to ride with Santa but I’d already met him and didn’t see any reason why it took three adults to supervise two well behaved little girls and one sleep deprived, psychotic two-year-old, so I handed MJ Tot’s boots, which he’d kicked off for the third time and said “I’m out.”
I walked home around the lake and was pulling a tray of peanut butter kiss cookies out of the oven at about the time the rest of them were finally getting off the trolley. I hope the ride was all they wanted it to be.
Saturday night, we went to our first Christmas party of the season at an old friend’s house. The crowd was a lot of Jay’s friends, some of whom he’s been friends with since grade school. They’ve been my friends for nearly 4 decades as well but I like to specify. In short: a great group of fun folks!
The house was in a neighborhood not far from my parent’s place but we had the devil of a time finding it, even though we’ve been there before! As I said, it gets dark out really early now. This dinner party started at 6, by which time it had been dark out for an hour. For some reason, house numbers are not a big deal in this neighborhood. Just to add to the fun, its one of those neighborhoods where all the streets have the same name, ei: Lake St, Lake Ct, Lake Ln, Lake Blvd, Lake Cr, Lake Ave, Lake Rd…
With no numbers on most of the houses.
We had several options: give up and go home; get out of the car and yell Anne’s name until she came and found us or; call her and ask for a hint.
Thank goodness for cell phones!
She didn’t pick up.
She was too busy, standing out on her front stoop, waving down cars to see if they held her dinner guests.
Eventually, all the guests were found (I think) and we had a lovely, hilarious time, eating, drinking and telling stories.
We didn’t stay too late. Usually, any Pivecs in the house are the last to leave but Jay had had a game that afternoon (the Tommies lost; boo!) and was beat, both physically and emotionally.
It was a great way to kick off the Christmas season.
The next morning, as we walked out of church, Jay said “I haven’t seen my grandkids in forever.”
I had invited them all over for dinner by the time we got to our car.
Adam, Katie and Boopity Boop arrived first. The girls are big enough now to know us and remember our house. They were as happy to see us as we were to see them. Smiles all around! Boopity even hugged me, although she may have just been going for my glasses again.
I prefer to think she hugged me.
Then Ty, Megan, Xena and Babalouie showed up and things really took off!
We missed Josie; she had to work. Aside from that, it was a perfect way to end the weekend.
I have not put up any of our decorations yet. We’ve got lights on the fences but that’s it.
Putting up the Christmas tree is a lot of work. At my pace, it takes at least two days. I had a ton of work to do this week and this paycheck is the last I’ll be picking up before Christmas, so I didn’t want to take the time off to decorate. Plus, it’s the first Monday of Advent, what’s the rush?
Today, after class, Jay went and bought tree toppers for the whiskey barrels on the deck. After he went off to practice and I’d finished the last of the orders I’d planned on doing, I decorated them with red and silver ornaments, curtesy of the Dollar Store. They look nice and festive, now!
It was the perfect day to get the last of the out door decorations up: it was a bit misty out but warm. Mid-fifties, warm. Tomorrow is supposed to be thirty degrees colder. With any luck, we’ll have snow by the weekend.
I had several windows open in the house this afternoon. I figured it might be my last chance to get some fresh air inside before next spring. It was lovely, fresh and wet. It smelled the way I remember Paris smelling in November of 2012. Then the sun tipped toward the horizon and the temperature plummeted. Now all the windows are closed, the heat is on and I’ve got chocolate for the next batch of Christmas cookies melting on the stove.
What’s not to love about winter?