Brrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr!!!

Holy freakin' ice cubes, Batman!  Who turned off the furnace?  What happened to my mild fall weather?  And most importantly, where the heck are my gloves?

This will be our third winter in our house, and we are starting to get a routine for the winterizing tasks.  The humidifier attached to the furnace gets switched on and the air vents in the family room get closed so that more hot air flows into the kids' bedrooms.  The poor neglected grill finally gets hauled down from the upper-story deck to the basement, usually with some cursing and a banged up finger or two.

We are also starting the holiday activities, and this is really the first year that we actually have traditions to follow from last year.  Up until last year, we didn't even bother to put up a tree until the last minute due to my son's astounding toddler ability to destroy any object in 3 minutes or less, which has thankfully abated with time.  I will never forget the Christmas that we gated off the Christmas tree, and he still managed to snag it and pull it down with some 2 year old McGyver-ish contraption involving a toy tangled up in some yarn.

In addition to the big tree, we have a cheesy little tabletop rotating tree with fiber optic lights that flash different colors.  The kids love to take the mini-ornaments out of the Advent calendar compartment each morning and add them to the tree and then whine about how there was no candy in the compartment.   We've already started adorning every visible surface with white paper snowflakes (which is kind of pointless since most of our walls are white anyway) and even hung up the lights in the windows today.

It feels early to me, all this attention to the holiday season, but I guess Mother Nature decided it was winter after all.  And who am I to argue with the old broad, right?  Hot cocoa, anyone?  Here, you sit down by the fire while I go put on some Christmas music.  Bing Crosby okay with everyone?

Ahhhhhh, that's more like it!

Comments

[margaret]

Why put away the grill? We keep ours on the deck all winter long and have even been known to grill in January and February. At least until we run out of gas because Husband isn't that desperate to try and get the propane filled during the winter.

I decided to fore go the three individual chocolate filled advent calendars and instead picked up a cute basket. Each night I fill it with something (so far it's been Hershey Kisses and Reese Peanut Butter Cups - but I also have key chains, pet shops and mini ponies amongst other small toys hidden) along with a number. The kids take a treat and tape the number to the wall. I was originally going to fill it will all the goodies at once and then realized that they would probably last one day. The girls love it though. They can't wait to see whats in it each morning!

[Daisy]

We cover the grill and leave it in a sheltered spot next to the garage. Amazingly enough, I just used it less than two weeks ago! It was cool out, but I managed to use up the last of the charcoal and lighter fluid.