A Dusting of Snow

 Snow provokes responses that reach right back to childhood.

Andy Goldsworthy 

 This morning I walked the perimeter of Forest Park with gym friends with a weighted backpack. It was cold and good for the legs and good for the soul.

 We drove to Washington to deliver my dad's belated bday gift.  Sometimes a drive is so nice.  We visited with my parents (with masks on, dear reader -- hopefully my mom will be vaccinated soon!) and somehow we left with banana chocolate chip muffins, a half dozen doughnuts, a pearl necklace of my grandmother's, two costume necklaces for the girls, a Danish whisk, shampoo and conditioner (trial size), shampoo (Costco size), La Croix, a twelve pack of Truly ("a mistake. They have booze in them!"), and four frozen filet mignons.

[Yesterday I was laughing because my sister and I both loved THE SAME heart charm on the Ylang Ylang page (out of 30 heart items!) and today I saw a packing slip at my mom's ... for the very same Supergoop product I have in my online cart! Sharing a syncytial consciousness is weird.]

Arriving home a dusting of snow began to fall.  I cleaned out the coop while the girls terrorized played with the chickens.  (The girls are always determined to keep them out of "the side forest" - a decidedly un-forestlike strip of trees and vines between us and our neighbor - and just as determinedly the chickens gravitate toward the side forest.)

this berm will be planted with fruit trees soon!

They corralled the chickens into the run and I corralled the girls inside.  Clemmie started casting about, lots of energy needing direction.  "Do you have any fabric?" she said. "I want to make some clothes."

"I will get you whatever craft materials you need but you need to make a list. You should type it."

Birthday present idea list was also generated.

Another game she loves right now is Salon. We play a game in which one of us calls the salon, called Nail Snail, and makes an appointment, usually for a manicure and a hairstyle. We arrive at the salon, make introductions, and the beautification begins.  My favorite part of this game is the small talk in which we keep these characters going -- Clemmie will break character and give me direction, sotto voce,  "now you say ... your name is Linda ... I'm twenty-seven ... you've never been to Nail Snail before" and then resume her assumed voice and character.

Another employee of Nail Snail on the typewriter.

Luke read the first Harry Potter book aloud to the girls and they are into it.  Josie has a great memory for details and minor characters and likes to flip through the book to find a passage that has come up in conversation.  

This might have been on my bedroom door for weeks but I just saw it today. Annoying song but pretty good advice.

 

Weekend on Ice

Jenny and I had plans for the pop-up Christmas bar and Luke's show on Friday but all of the plans of all of St Louis were derailed by a Friday afternoon ice storm that paralyzed the city. It took me 1.5 hours to get to Jenny's and we slipped/slid down her street for a burger at Seamus McDaniels.

(Earlier in the day, Grandparents Extraordinaire flew home from Miami and picked up the girls for the weekend, luckily in advance of the weather.)

Cicero's cancelled the show but because the band was already set up, we had a private concert! (My co-workers braved the ice and cold and attended too so THANK YOU to them!)

I went in to work for a bit on Saturday morning and returned home to Luke + empty house + nowhere to be. MAGIC!!! Instead of completing any of the ten things I always say I'd do if the girls were out of the house, Luke and I curled up and watched television all.day.long. We took an early intermission for a Walgreens wine run and a later break to pick up Indian take out. We watched Sicario (scary-bleak), an episode of Chef's Table, the season premiere of The Man in the High Castle (Luke is going to pass on the series - I'll probably watch it solely for Rufus Sewell's performance), some Kimmy Schmidt (I was guffawing), and the very long but very good American Hustle. A very lazy and very fantastic day!

On Sunday morning we picked up Clementine in Washington and brought her home for the Nutcracker with our friends and their kids.

Getting glam.

The dancers circulated for photos and autographs during the Sugar Plum Fairy Luncheon.

Meeting the Snow Queen. C whispered to me: Is she going to magic us with her wand?

She loved the performance (that was awesome!) and when I asked her if she would like to be in it someday- the little kids played the mice ("you could be a mouse!") - she replied immediately that "I want to be a princess." Attagirl.

With no nap, she fell asleep on the way home. She slept here for a while and refused to wake up ... until 9:45 pm, when she awoke hungry and "firsty." [thirsty] She was in the funniest mood and the three of us sat at the table while she nibbled on salami, cheese, hummus, and carrots and she talked and talked and talked and cracked us up.