Walkin' In a Winter Wonderland

I was jolted out of bed around 7:30 by a loud banging noise coming from my living room. I thought it was a snow blower outside...until I looked outside and saw nothing but gray ground. We hadn't gotten a single flake of snow yet.

It was coming from my living room heater, behind the tree (which is pulled well away from it). It's been doing it on and off all day. I have no idea why it's doing it. It wasn't doing it yesterday.

I managed to make Johnnycakes and put on Brunch With the Beatles between bouts of noise. "Beatles #1 Songs" was the theme, but I didn't get to hear a whole lot of it.

I called Mom after breakfast. She was fine. Hers, Dad's, and Keefe's Christmas was quiet after we left. They cleaned up from the party that night. In the morning, they opened the remaining presents, and Dad made a smaller version of his famous Christmas morning breakfast. (The one that includes his greasy scrambled eggs and home-made hash browns...and that Mom always fusses leaves grease all over her kitchen.)

Anny's Christmas wasn't quite as pleasant. My 6-year-old nephew Skylar sneaked into the living room on Christmas morning and opened all of his presents before anyone else! Needless to say, no one is very happy with him right now. (Although how he managed that in the tiny house he and his mother and brother have in the Villas is beyond me. You'd think Anny would have heard SOME rustling paper.)

Left for work right after I finished my chat with Mom. The sky was gray and cold. It was chilly, but not windy. I saw a few scattered snowflakes as I sped along, but they weren't really much. Mom said they were getting huge piles of snow as I talked to her, but we hadn't gotten anything at quarter of 11.

Not surprisingly, work was a total madhouse when I got in. It was ridiculous. Everyone wanted to get home before the snow got bad...which admittedly, it did. By 2:30, those little flakes had become a blustery blizzard. The blizzard cleared out the crowd, but it also decimated our supplies. All of the eggs but the organic brown eggs were gone by the time I finished at 4, and bread was getting low, too. There was a surprising amount of milk, though.

Good thing, because snow or no snow, I had my own shopping to do. I needed a huge basketful of items - yogurt (plain and flavored), milk (there was plenty of half-gallon skim milk), ground chicken, a nice London Broil, tangerines (to replace the vanished bananas I haven't been eating much anyway), a bag of apples, grapefruit, an onion, apple cider (to make Felicity's Apple Butter), granola bars, and canned diced tomatoes. Restocked mousse mix, Smart Balance butter, and muffin cups after last week's baking. I treated myself to two bags of Land O'Lakes Mint Gourmet Hot Chocolate on sale and a half-price bag of York Peppermint Patties to freeze for a chewy treat. (I may get more Yorks tomorrow.)

And yes, I bought the organic brown eggs. I prefer brown eggs anyhow, and organic is as good as any. If I have to pay extra...well, at least I know my breads and cookies will be healthier.

I walked home. Before you look at me funny, first of all, a few people did offer to drive me, but I had the bike. Second, I didn't want anyone going out of their way on a day with weather most people around here can't handle well. Third...well, I WANTED the walk. I needed the exercise, and I loved my walks in the snow last year.

I had more of a problem on the Black Horse Pike. The wind was really whipping something fierce there. It blew into my eyes, covered my bike, and made it hard to push. Things were much better once I got to Kendall Boulevard. Newton River looked like one big greyish-white pearl, and Kendall looked like a Christmas card or a Thomas Kincaid painting. A series of spotlights casing a soft white, star-like pattern on the glittering snow were especially pretty.

Though I enjoyed my walk, I was glad to get home. I put on a few Bowery Boys movies and made salmon and spinach salad for dinner. Both Bowery Boys movies I had on today were from the later Stanley Clements years. Hot Shots had Duke and Sach playing bodyguard to a spoiled child TV star and wasn't much fun. Hold That Hypnotist, with Sach remembering where he hid a treasure in a past life under hypnosis, was much better.

Put on The Dress Circle after dinner. Tonight's theme was just what the doctor ordered - "Positive Songs For the New Year." The up-tempo songs to give people New Year's resolution ideas including "Don't Be Anything Less Than Everything You Can Be" from Snoopy the Musical, "You Mustn't Be Discouraged" from the Carol Burnett Broadway vehicle Fade Out, Fade In, "Life Has It's Funny Little Ups and Downs" from the 50s MGM movie I Love Melvin, and the wonderful Sting version of the British show tune favorite "Spread A Little Happiness" (which the hosts have used on New Year's before - for once, we all agree that it's lovely).