Wednesday, December 17, 2025
Keith and I go to the Mall of America every year and walk around all day on one day and buy stuff. Sometimes for ourselves, sometimes for others. Today was that day. We had a great time – but we did have to sit on a bench a few more times than in past years. We brought our big Target reusable grocery bag and were able to reject 10 bags from shops. It turned into a pretty heavy bag, and I felt a little like Santa hoisting that beast up on my shoulder to give Keith an occasional break. We collected quite a few points toward fun at the mall after the new year – I love free stuff!
Carla asked for a furnace update this morning, so I realized I never let everyone know how it turned out. We went to bed in our warmed-up bed and woke up in our warmed-up house. The furnace came on by itself in the night. Huh. John, the furnace guy, came anyway because obviously something was wrong. He took a look and immediately knew what was wrong. It was poorly installed. He gave the unknown installer grace – perhaps he was young and didn’t know any better – but mistakes were made with different sizes of pipes. That cause condensation, which lead to corrosion, which led to not working. And then working. He replaced the bad things and fixed the wrong things and did a furnace tune up. Furnace is working well. The bummer part is that he pointed out that our basement is very short on vents and that will stress the furnace over time. We have never considered vents on a new house inspection. You should consider vents on your next house purchase.
I forgot to tell you that a kid threw up at school the other day. I had a whole pack of kindergarteners in a heap on the carpet with their iPads. I was reading from the Smartboard when there was a commotion. I turned to say, “Let’s hold it together for another minute,” but instead I heard, “E threw up.” Boy, did she ever. Honestly, I do not know how one tiny girl could throw up so much. I told them up stand up and take a step back, then carefully and slowly go to sit at their table spots. AND THEY DID. No one lost their minds. No one got anything on themselves. (How???) They moved, sat, did their assignment. I was so thankful and utterly surprised.
I feel like there was another update I was supposed to do, but it escapes me now. Let me know if you know what it was.
I purposely did not read last night at 10 PST because I wasn’t sure if you would spoil the survivor finale. Maybe you haven’t watched yet….
We stayed up too late watching. I didn’t want spoilers!
I think your kindergarten story, in which nobody gets vomit on them and everybody goes to their table spots and works on their assignment, qualifies as a Christmas miracle.
YESSSS!!! I was busy with a lot of thinking and doing. After they left, the three adults now in the room said, wow, did that just happen?!