Good news, everybody: We've gotten above zero here today. We started this morning (two days before Christmas) at -12F (-24C), but even though I only see gray sunshine outside my window, the temperature has now climbed all the way to +23.
We will get warmer weather in time for Christmas, though. In fact, temperatures will rise into the 20s and close to 30. That's thanks to a big Christmas snowstorm barreling this way.
At this point, we are on the cusp (love that word) of the heavy snow area. To the east of us, they will be getting a Christmas stocking full of snow, rain and freezing rain. To the west of us, mainly wet snow. We are close to the dividing line.
I am keeping a close eye on it today, because my son is driving north today from near Detroit. I talked to him just before he left to pass along good news: He and the storm are both racing this way, but he should win the race easily if he follows his normal schedule. No reason he can't--the storm is coming from a different direction.
After that, it gets dicey. With all the snow being forecast, we may move up a visit to see my mom at the nursing home. Instead of Christmas Day, I am thinking we will leave Thursday morning, Dec. 24, drive down there, make our visit and then head for home before road conditions get too dicey. My guess is that we will see some snow before we get back to our place (50 miles [80 km] away), but the heavy stuff won't hit us until later. If we don't dawdle too much, we should be OK. Once we get home, it can snow as much as it wants.
To explain--the storm is coming at us from the southwest, and the city with her nursing home is to the southeast. One thing to keep in mind, though, is that the storm is coming at us as the crow flies--straight. We are driving as the road meanders. It is far from a direct route--sort of like the letter "L."
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It's treasure chest time at home. My wife and I and the kids stopped giving each other gifts a few years ago. It's complicated to explain ... but it can be hard to come up with ideas for gifts that fit budgets, and all of us know how to order stuff for ourselves online.
(Notwithstanding that, however, I did get my wife a couple gifts for the holidays. That breaks the rules, I know. I'll tell you what they are, if you can keep the secret for two days: I got her a copy of the old "Thorn Birds" miniseries on DVD, which she badly wanted to have, and I gave her a gift certificate from a local jewelry store. I noticed that she likes jewelry (particularly pretty necklaces) more and more.)
(Shhhh! That's just between us.)
The treasure chest? It came from B in Alaska and arrived on Monday. It's the exact size as the Priority Mail box that arrived at B's house at about the same time. Mine is a combination birthday/Christmas box, to note the fact that those occasions fall on consecutive days.
We have agreed that we will both be opening our boxes today (Wednesday). I don't know what is in my box, but I'll tell you what is in hers:
--Two bags of Old Dutch Rip-L-Chips, a popular brand of potato chips in this area.
I will explain: At some point over a year ago, we got to talking about potato chips, and I told her the Old Dutch chips were the best. Then, when we met for the first (and only) time around the Fourth of July, going to that neopagan camp, I got some Old Dutch chips for a potluck dinner being held at the camp. Here's what the other campers thought about the chips: They vanished very quickly. We didn't get to have too many. So I bought another bag, and we munched them in the car as I drove her back to the airport in the Twin Cities, as our short visit was ending. Those chips didn't last long, either.
I managed to get two bags of chips into the box. One bag, I said, is for her to share with her husband and son and guests during the holidays. The other is for her to hoard selfishly.
--One bag of Australian black licorice. Or "liquorice," as it was spelled on the bag. She likes Australian licorice . I didn't explore that when we were together--those were some really busy days, and it slipped through the cracks--but now she can have a treat.
--The first "Hellboy" movie on DVD. I like the Hellboy films, but B doesn't care for stories about monsters or science fiction. I told her she would like Hellboy--for a monster, he's got a lot of humanity, too, and a tragic side.And he works for the good guys.
You see, what happened is ... I liked the movie so much I eventually bought the director's cut for myself. So what do I do with the first copy I got? I know! I know!
--Some DVDs I burned for her. Recently, B saw an old Harold Lloyd comedy on TV ("Speedy") and fell in love with him. I like Harold Lloyd, too, and over the years I had burned some Harold Lloyd films I recorded from TV onto DVDs--so I made copies of them and stuck them in the treasure chest, too.
The ones getting special attention are "Safety Last!" (the one in which Lloyd hangs from the hands of a clock on the side of a building--I'm sure you have all seen stills of that) and "Girl Shy" (in which a very shy man--guess who?--who even stutters when he tries to talk to a woman writes a book called "The Secret of Making Love." Many comic misadventures ensue.)
None of the gifts are expensive--I joked to her that the postage cost more than the items inside. But the cost of Christmas gifts isn't the important part. The items are important or meaningful to the two of us, and that's really all that matters.
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All that matters to us, as a family, is keeping track of one another and making the most of the time we get together. We are going to be watching some movies while Phil is here, we'll have a semi-traditional ravioli supper some night and some pizzas by a local company that he is particularly fond of. (Once, he bought a whole case of them to take home. It was winter, so they probably survived the 10-hour drive.)
We will talk about this and that, he'll visit my other son (who lives in town at his own apartment), and we'll all get together to watch more films and DVDs. I've found some surprises for him, too, and he talked about some films he'd like to see. That means I'd better stop at the local video place (the only one in town) right after work today.
He arrives tonight (Wednesday) and will leave for home on Sunday. After that, who knows when we will next see him? Maybe this summer. It depends.
The only thing I'm sure of is that we will make the most of our limited time together, and I hope all of you will do the same over the holiday season. It's good time.
After he leaves, my holidays will be busy: Early next week, I will try to visit S and her husband--maybe my wife will come along, maybe not. Over New Year's, both of us will head to NW Wisconsin to see her brothers and sisters--a dinner and a family meeting. The week after that, I plan to visit N for another movie night.
Happy holidays to all my bloggy friends over here. I plan to visit much more often next year than I have for the last few months.
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