Let The Christmas Games Begin!

Greetings to all!  It's me, Maggie, here at Ice Station Ao4.  That's right, we're iced in!  No walkies allowed at all yesterday, as it was tricky enough just getting to the yard.  Oh.  And to the rain gauge.  Or in our case ...

The "ice gauge".

Mom reports in every morning to a network called the Community Collaborative Rain, Hail and Snow Network (CoCoRaHS). The National Weather Service and other meteorologists use the data they collect. Unless, of course, it's frozen to a post.

One of the other volunteers suggested pouring hot water on the post (careful not to pour it into the gauge!) to get it off - so Mom skated out there and was able to remove it and bring it in to thaw.

Thawing - note the ice in Mom's hand 

Anyway, we had a ton of precipitation (1.67 inches) that started as rain but turned to ice.  Lots and lots of ice.  So ...

... rather than go for walks, we started decking the halls!  This was very exciting for me, as Mom hasn't put up many inside decorations for the past couple years.  Something about a "very curious someone", "avoiding temptation", "staying out of trouble".... I have no idea.  All I know is that Mom started getting all sorts of interesting things out of secret closets!  Things like this:

"Ooooh!  A snowman!"

He was very interesting.  He's up high on a shelf now.  Hmm.

Mom held this decoration down for me to sniff it:

Gingerbread Man in an antique quilt pocket

Isn't it cute? Ao4 legend has it that there used to be a gingerbread man in there made from cinnamon and applesauce.  We in the Ao4 are sworn not to  rat each other out  name names.  Mom made the stuffed one a few years ago. There's a rumor going around that she had to remove that one from my mouth after showing it to me. Hey! I was just doing a little reenacting of that poem --- you know the one, "...Run, run, as fast as you can, you can't catch me, I'm the gingerbread man ..." That one! Seriously!

Moving right along ... there's another Ao4 tradition that Cam and I were compelled to take part in. Here's Cam:

Cam, doing the dreaded snooter hanging!

And here I am:

"Happy now, Mom?"

There's a chance I removed that from the doorknob it was hanging on this morning and absconded with it. I was just moving it to a different place! Really!

While we were upstairs unpacking, I met this guy:

"This is St. Nicolas, Mags!  Your grandma painted him!"
"Mmm.  Tasty!"

Like the snowman, he's sitting high on a shelf now.  Whatevs!  This next guy was way more interesting!

"The Nutcracker!  I've heard about you!"
"Guten Morgen."

Zimmie told me many a story about the Nutcracker -- and I could smell over 30 years of Sibe sniffies in his rather messed-up looking beard!  It was so exciting!!!  I made a mental note to get back to him!

Mom got the Dining Room table looking all festive:

Mom made the table runner; she purchased the Villeroy and Bach porcelain when they lived in Belgium

... then we piled all the stuff from upstairs on it. She wasn't done anyway.

 We unpacked a bunch of things called "ornaments" to go on the trees (in the HOUSE -- there are trees in the HOUSE!!!). One of the more interesting ones was a crown. It's called a Chrismon crown and our grandma made it.  It will go in a place of honor once we trim the trees, as they say, but for now ... oh, Cammie?!?!

"I actually don't mind this one..."

It does seem fitting, doesn't it?  For the record, I was rather ... uncooperative about posing with the crown on my head.  Hey.  I was named after a Prime Minister, for crying out loud!  Why would I want a crown?!?

Anyway, the Christmas fun has sure started at our house!  And since it would appear we are iced in still today, the games will continue!  How about all of you?  Are you helping decorate yet?

Yours sincerely,

Margaret Thatcher