Since we’ve already had “Christmas,” I’m more excited about TOMORROW, which is Winter Solstice! Which means that after that, our days start to get longer and lighter! Woohoo! (I’m very ready to be done with DARK). (Yeah, I know. It’ll be a while before we see a difference, but time flies these days).
We actually had some snow this morning (a dusting), and then when we ventured out and about for various errands (IN JOHN’S NEW TRUCK!), we were quite impressed with how much snow there was away from the water. The trees were all frosted and it was so pretty! No more than an inch anywhere (and possibly even a little less than that), but it was enough to be kind of exciting (instead of dim, dreary, constant rain…)
And speaking of John’s truck, it is marvelous! It does not ride (or, according to John, drive) like a truck at all. And it has many fancy features, even though this is the “middle” version of the Ford Maverick. I’ve never seen this before—to shift into Drive or Reverse or whatever, you spin a DIAL.
And that little lever beneath that dial? It’s the “electronic parking brake.” John has spent quite a bit of time reading the manual (he never does that…) and also messing around with all the billions of buttons to figure things out. It’s pretty much impossible to figure out on your own what all those weird icons even MEAN.
Yep, 35° but the snow stopped and by the time we got back, the snow we got was gone.
I love this truck! It is so nice to swing my legs to climb out and have my feet immediately touch the ground instead of having to DROP (the old truck was BIG). And it has a back-up camera! (I think they’re pretty much standard in newer vehicles these days. My 2012 Subaru—that only has 48k miles on it—missed that boat…)
One of the presents I got for Quinn was a little kid’s camera. After I got it, the box said, “for 6 years old+” and I was a little concerned that it might be a little old for him yet. But he was SO EXCITED and boy did he take to it. (It’s really cute, and it came with a little chip that you insert into a USB memory stick. I was able to easily transfer all of his pictures to my computer). I could see him running around the house everywhere, gleefully taking pictures! Here he is taking a picture of my Santa collection:
He took a LOT of pictures, and many of them were hilarious and blurry. Including some selfies! But some were quite creative (possibly accidently) and some were pretty darned good!
I’m not sure what this was, but it’s kind of cool!
The fireplace:
Goofy Papa!
Santas!
Da tree!
Blurry Nonna:
Quinn selfie (tee hee!)
The floor!
Daddy (and Nonna):
Papa with a filter!
Mama!
And…someone grabbed his camera and took a picture of Quinn:
Good times!
