Merry Christmas!

I slept in this morning until ten. When I took Gracie out, the first order of the every day, it was cold but sunny with a few peeks at a blue sky. There was also a snow shower, tiny little flakes which looked like ash blowing in the wind, and what a wind. The police sent out an emergency call last night about the storm. First would come rain then a wind up to 60 MPH. It would last until noon. I got the rain last night when I took Gracie out, and this morning I got the tail end of the storm, the windy part. The electricity went out for about five minutes, long enough for me to panic about dinner. I had visions of being bundled against the predicted Arctic cold and cooking at the barbecue. Luckily the outage was short-lived.

I’ve had my coffee and newspaper. Once I finish here I’ll prep dinner. The egg nog is already made and only needs the whipped cream. I’ll sit here at the table in the den, peel potatoes and watch TV. I’m actually watching the science fiction channel. Yeti is attacking.

Last night was wonderful. My friends and I made our gingerbread houses. The concentration was palpable, and while we did speak, it was mostly asking for a decoration. Every now and then we’d hear tap, tap, tap as a hard candy, a decoration for the houses, hit the wood floor and bounced. I think I was the worst at holding on to the the small decorations with frosting crusted fingers. Our houses were beautiful. We seem to get better every year. This year I added windows with candles, actually it was a square outline of frosting with a cut piece of a yellow gumdrop. I love this Christmas Eve tradition of ours.

After I left my friends, I went next door to my neighbors’ house. I brought champagne for mimosas. First we sang happy birthday to their oldest son, now twenty-one. Singing the Portuguese happy birthday was first. I clapped then we all sang it in English. Their custom is a huge dinner then they all open their presents at midnight. They wanted me to stay for dinner, and I hated giving up eating all those Brazilian dishes, but I was exhausted.

I went to bed early for me, by 11. Gracie woke me up once, at 5:00, so she could go out. I had no trouble getting back to sleep.

I have presents to open and food to prepare. I hope you all have a wonderful Christmas. Mine has started already.

Merry Christmas to all my Coffee family!!