I am sitting next to the dancing flames of the stove. Snow is blowing lightly outside. I want to light a candle, but I'm all tucked in with my blanket so it will have to wait until I get up again.
Is this my favorite time of day here? It might be or maybe it is when the sun is going down and the warm wood on the floor and walls and ceiling glows like we are in a box of sunshine.
Yesterday Adam and I saw the most enormous cat I've ever seen, down by the barn. Come up here Kitty! Come and hunt all the mice!
(I'm still fixated on mice....)
We haven't seen any and I am not sad about it.
Yesterday was a good day. Our kids came around lunchtime and I love gathering around the cozy round table that has lived here for possibly a century. (It depends on which aunt you believe.)
Emma and I went over to my parents' house and Adam and Mark...went to town.
When we are here in the summer, Adam is mowing. When we are here in the winter, he is going to town. He and Mark were working on a project and I think they enjoyed their time together as much as Emma and I did. She brought her book and mostly read it because she wanted to finish 45 books by the new year.
The Knudsens stopped by to visit my parents and it was fun to catch up with them. They and my parents grew up together and you can't put a price on lifelong friends or ever run out of things to talk about.
Tabor and Katie and girls arrived and it was fun to see them. (Ammon's family ended up sick so didn't come.)
We came home and got our things (and selves) ready for the party. It was a good time! There was a ton of food and even after everyone had filled their plates, it didn't seem like they had (except the deviled eggs were pretty much gone). We visited and played games orchestrated by our very own party planner in chief. Marianne had us play the game where you write a sentence, pass it on and the next person draws a picture, then you fold over the sentence and the next person writes another sentence based on the picture and you go on and on. Some people are good artists and some people are good sentence writers and all of it is funny.
We played the bowl game which is also good for a lot of laughter and fun. I was starting to get droopy so as soon as it was over, I was ready to go.
People said, like I don't leave early every year, "It's only an hour until the new year!"
I said it was already the new year in Pleasant Grove and I was ready for bed.
Olivia wanted to pick me up before we left. (It goes back to something we used to do when we were teenagers and I was a lot lighter.) I thought she would drop me and in turn break me so I wouldn't let her.
Try telling Olivia no.
I was trying my best to be dead weight so she couldn't pick me up. We were on the floor and laughing like crazy people and it was a scene. Carolina said, "What are you two doing?!?"
I was laughing too hard to explain and even now I don't think I could explain it. Mark finally stood behind me, with his hands under my arms and said, "OK, we're standing up." He lifted me to a standing position and said, "If you're going to act like a little kid, I'm going to treat you like one."
It just made me laugh more.
I think I needed to go to bed.
This morning we are going to the ladies holiday brunch at Olivia's which is a highlight of my year. I love gathering with some of my favorite women in the world. The conversation usually gets really real. Adam asked me last night. "How are you going to not cry?" He's worried about my eye. I will need to steel myself.
Maybe I'll think about Enoch's gold Nikes.
Before my grandma's funeral, I told Emma I was worried I was going to cry too much while we were singing the song she wanted my sisters and me to sing (we recruited Emma and Clarissa to join us). Emma said, "Just think about Enoch's gold Nikes."
Enoch does indeed have gold Nikes and I did indeed think of them. It was just random enough to work.
I guess follow Emma for more life hacks.