Well, the first day of winter is certainly all that and then
some today! Happy Winter Solstice,
everyone!
I’d also like to mention that while this may be the shortest
day of the year in terms of daylight hours; it has not been at all short in
terms of work, fun, or time awake and active.
Some of us aren’t done with the work quite yet either; since another
round of shoveling is in my near future so that Dad and I don’t end up with an
even bigger mess to deal with in the morning.
The great news with all of this is that we’re pretty much
guaranteed a White Christmas now barring a freak summer weather day between now
and Christmas Day!
For those of you reading this who are, like my grandparents,
ready to head south for the winter at the first sign of a snowflake after
spending decades dealing with the white fluffy stuff; try to cut me some
slack. I’m still only twelve for another
month and a half or so; haven’t been worn down by long experience with the work
side of snow; and still find it especially magical at Christmas. Then again, if you’re reading this at some
future time when I’m still around; I hope that I still feel that way in your
present.
The major snow-clearing work didn’t start until after dinner
tonight; so let’s back up a bit and cover the news from the rest of the day
before getting to that.
We woke up; Michael came over for Tai Chi; we had breakfast;
and then I worked all day with Mom and Dad pretty much from the time that
Michael left this morning until he came back over again after finishing work at
the Inn tonight.
You probably expected that to take longer, but the house
cleaning and cooking details aren’t all that interesting, and while there was a
little play time mixed in with Ethan and Ehlana; the fun parts of the work came
from doing that together. There was one,
minor afternoon round of shoveling too, but we hadn’t had much snow yet; and
that had mostly been because Dad didn’t want an icy base of wet slush to freeze
and turn everything into a skating rink ahead of the snow.
The movie and alone time that Michael and I had been hoping
for tonight didn’t exactly work out as planned; though we did get some alone
time between rounds of shoveling. That
wasn’t enough time to watch a movie anyway, so we watched a bit of the New Orleans Bowl game
while warming up with hot chocolate, a blanket, and some cuddling that Mandy
helped us out with.
I hadn’t really paid attention to the football action today
before then, but Michael had while working at the Inn; Dad must have checked in
on the games now and then today too since he’d known the earlier scores when he
and Michael had talked about them; and I know from my chat a while ago with
Rowen that Tim had watched most of the games too – including this evening while
they hung out together at his house.
Rowen would have rather watched a movie with him; but their time
together was fairly similar to what Michael and I were doing – except without
the snow play time with Ethan and Ehlana that we had during the first round of
shoveling and before they went to bed for the night.
By the way, while I’m thinking about snow, I want to mention
that I haven’t written about shoveling snow for my grandparents before because they
haven’t been here for most of the major winter snowfalls since Mom and I moved
here, and even though they’ve stayed home this year to spend the extra time
with Uncle Adam, Aunt Leanne, and Zack; they pay teens to take care of their
driveway and sidewalks when they’re away or it’s too much snow for Grandpa to deal
with on his own. He may still overdo it
this weekend, but at least he has a handful of Healers in the family to help
him out if he ends up strained and sore.
Then again I’m sure that Michael and Dad appreciate having
their own, personal Healers too. I
helped Michael out before he went home tonight after we finished our second
round of shoveling; and I expect that Mom helped Dad too – though let’s not get
into the details about all the ways she may have done that – especially after
they’d been apart all week while Dad was in the city.
Moving along, Dad and I were half way through clearing the
driveway, porches, and sidewalks when Michael came over from the Inn. He helped us
to finish that, and then we had the snow play time with Ethan and Ehlana before
going over to his house to help Jake, Stephanie, and Rebecca with more
shoveling. Mom had the twins ready for
bed by the time we got home from doing that; so we did the bedtime story and
tucked them in for the night before making the hot chocolate and doing the
cuddle and football thing in the lounge.
I’d love to report some quality couples play time to go with that, but
honestly, we both just wanted to get warm before needing to go outside and work
again.
We started the second round of shoveling at around eleven
o’clock, and again worked at my house before moving on to help out at
Michael’s. I did Michael’s mini-healing
when we did our goodnight hugs and kisses back at my house; and then I came up
to my room after Michael left. Since I
am planning that extra, late night round of shoveling, I didn’t get
changed. Mandy and I have been cuddling
on the sofa in the lounge again; and I’ve been doing my nightly computing along
with the chat with Rowen before she went off to sleep a while ago.
I haven’t mentioned Violet and Dillon; mostly because I
didn’t see much of them today. Now that
his mother is finished school for the holidays, they spent most of the day with
his family; and Violet’s spending the night there too. They’d considered another trip to Woodvale,
but decided not to do that with the bad-weather forecast. They’ll be in Woodvale for New Year’s Eve,
and may head up there for Boxing Day too before coming back for the family
Christmas weekend; but they haven’t decided that for sure yet. I know they’re having fun, and have more time
off before going back to school that we get at our school; but I hope they
don’t get so busy that they can’t get rested up and ready for their next
semester. I’m trying to keep that in
mind while I’m also wishing that we could spend more time together too – just
as Michael and I are doing with Jake and Stephanie. They have a lot on the go too juggling their
families, and though they don’t need to do a lot of travelling to keep up with
that; they do have a lot of family; all of their home town friends; and they’re
helping out at the Inn too.
Is it any wonder that so many college kids like to go
anywhere else except home during Spring Break?
Anyway, I don’t have much else to cover tonight. While we’ve done a lot of work today, my
holiday play time starts tomorrow with Marc’s thirteenth birthday party and the
teen Christmas pageant at the church in the evening. Michael and I are going to juggle the party
that’s including dinner at the Inn with helping out in the kitchen for that
buffet, and there will be more snow shoveling in the morning that will likely
replace Tai Chi; but we’ll still mostly get to play every day for the next week
and a half.
Okay, that’s it for tonight.
I’m going to put my computer away; have a little power nap; and then
clear the driveway and sidewalks again.
That’ll only leave me with enough time for another, slightly longer nap
before morning, but I’ll try and do that without waking Dad, and while that
won’t give me enough down time; I can always do a little extra self-healing to
make up for that. One way or the other,
I’ll make sure that I’m fired up and ready to play and have fun with my family
and friends.
Live long and prosper, fellow Magi of the Light!
