Oh, the Weather Outside is Frightful

Friday, December 23, 2022

It was COLD today. The blizzard winds didn’t really affect us beyond making the cold feel colder – the roads were a bit slick, and snow covered but blowing winds didn’t seem to be adding snow. It said the windchill was -39. We were discussing staying in all day, when we noticed the kids from across the street were outside using the snow pile in the middle of the cul-de-sac as a sledding hill. 39 below zero. Way to go, kids. They were bundled and zooming up the hill and I am sure that helped keep them warm. I watched them for a while, taking a few pictures. The littlest one fell into a hole and the big brother hurried right over to pull her out. It was so sweet. I took the potd – which was IMMEDIATELY followed by fists in the air with achievement. Fabulous fun.

We went out and bought some things – let’s face it – Christmas is coming and I want to buy things. To be fair, most of our things came from the grocery store – but we were out in the hustle and bustle and that is what mattered. We got to our first destination and Keith’s phone told him that Benjamin and Sean had returned from Alexander’s house. I realized we’d left an unwrapped gift for Benjin out where he could see it. I called Sean’s phone. No answer. I called again. No answer. I called Benjamin’s phone. No answer. I called Benjamin again. No answer. It is not an exciting present, and it really wouldn’t have mattered if he saw it, but really, what was with these people? Why didn’t they answer their phones? I called each of them again to no avail. I decided to call our house phone, because it talks out loud and says who is calling. If they heard it was my cell phone, maybe they would answer. It rang a couple times and the voicemail picked up. It was Alexander’s voice saying I’d reached the Thompsons and we weren’t home right now. Please leave a message and I’ll get back to you. I hung up and said that Alexander was still our voicemail. Did Keith know that? He said no, he had no idea. I said that it was even wrong, because he said he’d get back to the caller, not we’d do it. Huh. I called Benjamin again and got the same freaking voicemail – our voicemail instead of Benjamin’s. What? How did that even happen? I hung up. Because we were in the car and my phone was hooked to the Bluetooth, we even saw Benjamin’s name on the screen, so I knew I hadn’t misdialed. That was so weird. Then my phone rang and it was Alexander. Excellent! I bet he was on his way to our house and we could have him grab the left-out gift. I answered and started with, “Where are you?” In response, I got, “You’ve reached the Thompsons. We’re not home right now…” followed by gales of laughter. Apparently, none of those voicemails were voicemails, but Alexander was answering phones and just pretending to be a voicemail and I am reallllllly dumb. It was fabulous. According to Benjamin, I am extra dim because none of the three times were even close to the same and Alexander was struggling to remember what he’s said the last time. I never noticed a thing – other than the fact that I was NOT reaching actual people. I was bamboozled. Delightful.

We went to the Hallmark store to get my cookie cutter ornament – which I must get every year because it reminds me so much of my mom. As we were walking out, I saw an ornament of three measuring spoons made to look like a snowman and I actually stopped walking because we had to get it for my mom. Darn. She is gone. But those quick moments of forgetting are pretty nice.

After dinner, Benjamin and Alexander picked a game from the closet that apparently (even though it is dated 1987) we have only played once. It was a sort of a trivia game, with some odd twists, that took us almost two hours to play. We only finished because Alexander is a beast at figuring things out quickly (roll again for answering within 20 seconds). The best part of the game was the fact that Benjamin had his head on the table, watching for the sand in the time to go down to the 20 second line. That, and I had a shiny green gel pen to keep my score and it was beautiful.

We are all confused (and pleased) to be together and it is not even Christmas tomorrow. We still have another day. Sunday Christmas seems to be a great thing.

We are really enjoying having kitties at our house. Usually, Eggs and Oats are not very visible, but they have been all around and are so cute and fuzzy.

I would like to note that Benjamin would like to have a Christmas themed restaurant, complete with a hot chocolate sommelier. You heard it here first.

It’s going on midnight, and we are all in the vicinity, helping Sean make strawberry marshmallows. The hustle! The bustle! It is best.