Oh, the Pressure!

     Ooops, I thought I posted this the other day. Dates are a little bit off. I think the power went out in the middle of this post. 

Let me explain. 

     It all started on Tuesday, 2 short fun-filled days before Thanksgiving. The wind picked up, and just kept on picking up. It blew for 2 days. Did you know that if hurricane-force winds blow after November 1st, they are not classified as hurricanes? No, they're 'winter storms'. They can rip your roof off, but they aren't hurricanes. Awesome. 

     So in the midst of stuffing mushrooms and baking pies, the power went out. And stayed out. We dug out my new BFF, Genny.

  I lurve her. 

Genny would be short for generator. 

She saved me! She finished the mushrooms! She baked 4 pies! She ran the dishwasher! She let me shower!!!!

She's my hero. And, YES, SHE'S FEMALE! (Nothing male could get that much housework done.) 

     The power came back on Wednesday afternoon, only to go off again a short time later. We ran Genny to do the necessary stuff, and played board games by kerosene .(That oil gives me a huge headache. Or it could be the low-light. And I could not knit, it was too dim for me to see. More awesomeness! Mother Nature and I are no longer on speaking terms. Interrupting knitting!)

     Power was restored late Wednesday night, and the turkey was in the oven by 8am Thanksgiving morning. We crossed our fingers that the power would hold; there wasn't enough gas to run Genny for 6 hours to cook a turkey. It held, the turkey cooked, and all was right with the world.

     Okay, that seemingly innocent -looking Christmas Tree widget on the sidebar is giving me fits. I was very excited about it at first, being so festive and all...but...now it's just mocking me. I'm beginning to hear it in my sleep. 

It sounds like the Mother and the teacher in the movie "A Christmas Story"...

taunting......."You'll shoot your eye out, you'll shoot your eye out,"

except it's  "You'll never make it, you'll never make it".

'It" of course, is the long list of items I plan to make for gifts.

AND THE TREE IS PROBABLY RIGHT, WHICH IS WHY I FEEL LIKE SETTING IT ON FIRE.

I once watched this for 24 straight uninterrupted hours in a fleabag motel one Christmas. TBS had a marathon. We had literally JUST moved onto the island, and had to go DownEast one more time, to get the boat. He was driving the boat down the coast, and we had to wait for the weather to clear. We'd sold our house, had nowhere to stay. Ah, the days before kids...we hung out in pj's all that day and watched this movie over and over again  while It snowed. And we ate at the only place open on Christmas Day, a Chinese restaurant. We did not have the duck.

Hmm, I have a vague memory of an almost life-threatening car accident that trip, resulting on a flat tire. And the spare was for a Chevy; we had a Ford. Significance? Chevy's have 4 lug nuts, Ford's have 5. They are not interchangeable. And what better time to find that out than Christmas Eve in a sleety snowstorm in the pitch-black darkness that is nighttime in DownEast Maine? We never did figure out why we had that spare tire, or where ours got off to. 

Adding to the pressure of the Holidays is this:

It's just not right. This was in my mailbox yesterday, November 24th. (Sorry- told you the dates are off.)

She has sent bribery in the form of Birthday gifts to ease the sting, however.

And this girl knows how to get to my soul!

Check this out!

There are little pilgrim-y craft kits for the kids (to keep them occupied while I eat chocolate, of course), gingerbread coffee (!!!) and gingerbread mix, ohmygod chocolate covered espresso beans (these are already gone), and near and dear to my heart- a giant bag of M&M's.

I hid the M&M's, and for the life of me, I can't remember where. My house is very small, so they will turn up soon, surely. I just hope I find them and not the kids!

Thank you Stacie!!!!!

When I saw your handwriting on the unmistakably shaped envelope containing your Xmas card, I polished off the rest of the espresso beans. Thanks to the overload of sugar and caffeine (my other two BFF's), I was able to laugh and proudly, prominently display The First Christmas Card Of The Season. I may have called you an un-Christian name. Possibly. cough.