I remember a white Thanksgiving once (in 1985 when I was preggers with Nate), but I honestly do NOT recall ever having a white Christmas in my 52 of them. And here we are! What an anomaly! It was quite surreal as we left this morning with the weenies and the cat to head to Harstine in the Durango, driving through falling snow. That was relatively short-lived as we drove further south, but the depth of the already-fallen snow became a lot more significant. Man! And once we got onto the island, it was sure a good thing we were in a 4WD SUV because it was dicey!
The "road" down to our place is private, narrow, hilly, curvy, and unplowed and JDub followed in the wheel tracks of just one other vehicle — which was a rutted, icy mess. The Durango was all over the place. Rather white-knuckly!
Ah, but it's beautiful here. I've never seen snow at Harstine before!
We felt very fortunate to learn that the boat tent hadn't collapsed under the weight of the snow (nor the lattice deck cover), and no broken pipes or leaks. Whew! I was a bit worried since it's been at least a month since we've been here and the temperatures have gotten really low.
I also hung Helen's homemade suet ball she gave me. Mojo has already scoped it out (and a towhee is currently perched on the shepherd's hook trying to figure out how to get to it).
I believe Mojo is Very Happy to be here. He's been out gallivanting and not caring much that he keeps slipping up to his armpits in the snow. He's chased Bailey a few times and even spent some time on the snow-covered deck cover and trailer roof! (Ha—"cat on a cold-tin roof").
Now rewind to last night, Christmas Eve. What fun! It started out that Nate was going to have to work (he's worked very little during all this snow because the restaurant has been closed! So he's had to take whatever shifts he possibly can). Turned out at the last minute that he was called off so we were able to have a very enjoyable—and ultimately relaxing—evening. First, I baked lobster tails for the three of us:
Here's the recipe (veddy nummy and easy):
Here's Nate enjoying his (we had artichokes, too!)
Even with just three of us, dinner was festive and fun. How can it not be with lobster tails dipped in basil-butter? Mmm. Nate had been over at his buddy's house for the past three days so it was good to see him. (How will I manage not seeing him for months at a time when he's in the Navy? He leaves for Boot Camp 6 months from today).
THEN we opened presents. We've always done that in my family, and JDub has in his family, too—I think it stems from our German roots. In fact, all my friends growing up opened gifts on Christmas Eve, and they had either German or Scandinavian backgrounds. (Interesting). Here was the tree beforehand:
Bailey with HER present (yup, it squeaks. Or did until she pulled the squeaker out of it....) And yes, she unwrapped it on her own!
Here's Nate with his new Navy hat. We all brought in a haul; lots of fun electronic gadgets, books, a King-sized memory foam mattress cover (YAY!), a Garmin navigator, a Flip video recorder, a digital picture frame, clothes, power tools, and assorted, well, fun stuff! We open our gifts one at a time, taking turns around the group so we can see what others get. That makes it very enjoyable, and draws it out a little longer, too! (Oooh, I also got a veddy nice gift certificate from Amazon that will most likely go toward many books on my Kindle!) We also watched the Chronicles of Narnia on the big screen TV and it was really good (I'd never seen it before). It's a little odd this year with my brother and his family visiting Dad in Arizona. But with all this crazy weather lately, it's really nice to just have some relaxing time here at Harstine, listening to tunes, JDub working a jig saw puzzle, me blogging/twittering, cuddling with weenies, and Mojo going in and out CONSTANTLY. (I'm sure he is WILLING it to be summer again, but good luck with that).
On tap for Christmas Day dinner — steak. Likely not bbq'd, though. Brrr!
