The plan for Monday was to finish the shopping and restock bird seed from Birds Unlimited in Knoxville. I had even talked Bill into going along as my chauffeur. So much for plans! Bill woke up with a bad back and I knew he was in no shape to drive and shop, especially given the Christmas traffic and crowds. I got a late start, was out for almost 4 hours and still didn't get finished. Fortunately, I had taken time to start some chicken & vegetable soup in the crock pot. I didn't have much to do to get supper on.
Tuesday was the final Advent Bible study. I really enjoy this group of folks and I missed two week because of Santa's Helper duties. We bring different backgrounds and viewpoints to the discussion with positive, affirming attitudes. The study has been "Angels at Christmas" and guided us to see angels in an expansive way, not limited to literal belief. Bill was better today, so when I got home we set out to finish the shopping. We started with lunch at Tomato Head, next door to Birds Unlimited, then made our way down Kingston Pike with what seemed like millions of others. For all the time and effort we spent, we came home with bird feed and a puzzle for Claire. I ordered new walking shoes from the New Balance store. I'm glad we have chicken soup on hand which I will serve with pear salad.
I had set aside Wednesday morning for grocery shopping. I spent the most I've ever spent in one session, almost $450. Grocery inflation is a real thing and some things, especially eggs, are sometimes scarce. Today is Claire's birthday. She made it clear that she planned to spend the day on the couch doing nothing. I stopped by, and I think she was having a good day. It is also brother Park's birthday. He was home, not at work, so I had a nice phone chat with him. He and Cindy were planning a dinner out with friends. They have a great group of friends at Wolf Lake and socialize frequently. A few weeks back I had an idea of gifting everyone who came to Christmas Eve service with a small ornament, which I ordered. I spent part of the afternoon tying the red ribbon on the wooden ornament. There were 6 different designs, Hope, Love, Joy, Peace, Noel and Faith. I finished the day by going with Kathy to the choir Christmas Park at Lee and Tony Aikens' house (Mayor Aikens). My offering was creamed spinach.
Thursday I went to church to help with getting the bulletins ready for 2 services, Christmas Even and New Year's Day and put the ornaments out in baskets to be given out by the ushers. I invited Claire and Amanda to meet me for lunch and they chose Cracker Barrel. We had a good time. It was almost 3 pm by the time I got home. I left again almost immediately with Bill to pick up a new microwave that we had ordered from Lowe's in Harriman. When I was finally home, I finished the gift wrapping and got the front bedroom back in order (that is my gift-wrapping station.) Before supper I put the ham and turkey in the oven to be used for Christmas Dinner when David's family arrives on the 26th. I used the last package of Mississippi catfish for supper, pan-fired. Whew...what a busy day!
A big storm was expected to blow in overnight, dropping from mid-forties at midnight to single digits at dawn. We prepared as well as we could. It was raining, as predicted, when we turned out the lights. We didn't know what we would wake up to find.
 |
| They got the storm a day earlier than we did |
Friday, at our 3 am nature call, we heard a howling wind, had no power and a very cold bedroom. Bill had the Little Buddy propane heater ready and we have the propane in the living room so we were okay. The power started coming back on about 7:30, just as I was thinking about how to make coffee with a can of sterno and my fondue pot. Fortunately it stayed on long enough to make coffee, went off, then came back on so I could fix breakfast. All morning we had intermittent electricity. We found quite a few pine limbs down around the house. Two major tree pine tree limbs had cracked off and fallen across the road in front of the house. We also had a huge cedar tree fall down toward the road and know another cedar over. The Brocks were in worse shape because the power outage shut down their pump and their water pipes under the house froze. Kathy braved the cold to come over for our small electric heaters and some jugs of water. I called the county road department and by 11 am the road crew had cleared the street. They left a big mess and our other driveway is blocked with a cedar log.
The blinking power was a problem all day, disrupting all our electronics. We just turned everything off. I de-boned the ham and the turkey breast, wrapped the meat and refrigerated it for Monday (or whenever), and froze the still meaty bones for soup later.
I'm glad we stocked up on bird seed. The little ones really need it today! At the feeder are the usual crowd: mourning doves, house finches, cardinals, goldfinches, chickadees, bluejays, titmouses, red-bellied and downy woodpeckers, white-throated sparrows, wrens and nuthatches. Today for the first time this year I spotted the dark-eyed juncos and pine warblers. A murder of crows gathered at the pan of ham fat I put out.
Christmas Eve - the presents are all wrapped and under the tree. The refrigerator is overflowing. All that remains is some light house-cleaning. We had a phone visit with Anna, who was expecting Jeff to arrive soon and take her to Boston for Christmas with his family. The candlelight service at Trinity started at 5 pm with Michael Thomas at the piano for pre-service carols beginning at 4:45. Mike and Amanda joined me as is their custom. We were home before 7 for our traditional taco supper. We haven't had the Matzeks for overnight on Christmas Even for the past two years because of COVID. We were delighted that they wanted to be here with us.
 |
| Christmas Eve |
Christmas Day came in very cold, about 5 F when we got up for coffee at 7:30. We were snug and warm enough in our little house with (thankfully) no more power interruptions. Banana Bread and coffee, gifts to open, late breakfast of hash-brown casserole, bagel bits, sausage, fruit plate and mulled cider, more gifts, more coffee and cider. Our time together extended to mid-afternoon and cheese fondue. Altogether a beautiful day. We look forward to the Missouri Whitakers tomorrow.
 |
| Christmas morning |
