DECEMBER 2008-Here Comes Grandpa Claus

When I decided to catch up on my blogging and write a post for every month of last year I had no idea it would take me half of 2009 to do it. I guess I should have known. Anyway, I just want to get on with the rest of my "blog life" so I'll tell you about last December and add photos later...maybe. I started out the month getting 7 stitches removed from my finger. I cut myself a couple of weeks earlier when I was cleaning a knife incorrectly and my hand slipped. It was one of the new knives I got for Christmas the year before, still very sharp. Who said you're more likely to cut yourself with a dull knife than a sharp one? My dull knives were very kind to me for many years. I can't remember ever cutting myself with them. Of course I never tried to force them to do anything they didn't want to do. :) During the month my singing group, The Sound Singers, had several "gigs". Mike played Santa Claus in a skit at work. The "reindeer" even pulled him across the stage in a "sleigh" that looked suspiciously like an office chair on wheels. He also donned the Santa outfit so he could be "Grandpa Claus" at our family Christmas party. (I guess I'd better put a photo of Grandpa Claus in here.) We also had several days in December with lots of snow that made the world come to a near stand-still. Since our snow usually melts in a day or so communities around here don't invest in snow clearing equipment. I think there must have been a grand total of one snow plow clearing Thurston County. (They probably sold the other one when they heard about global warming.) Also they've decided that salt is bad for the environment so they refused to use any. It was very frustrating to say the least. A lot of people were getting really grouchy. In the middle of one of the big snowfalls I went to the ballet, The Nutcracker, with Chris and sons, Nathanael and Seth. It was my Christmas gift from Chris' family. We drove through some really deep snow. I thought, if we made it, that we'd be the only ones in the audience but, even though the streets were almost totally free of traffic there were a lot of people at the ballet. The next day church was cancelled because of the snow. We had our family Christmas party on the 29th where we acted out the nativity, had yummy food and opened gifts. (2653)