Weekly Wrap Up - Christmas Week

The weekend was busy with Olivia and Tom both working, and Lindsey was at Lantern Tours every night.  Of course, technically this is now working for her now that she's an employee and no longer a volunteer.  All of the shows this year are sold out, which is wonderful for the museum!   This first week, Lindsey was in "England".  Here she is with the cast from that skit.  (I don't know who took the photos, but gosh I wish my phone was this good!)

Every year we get a photo of "the triplets".  The two girls on either side of Lindsey are siblings, one a year younger, one a year older than Lindsey.   But they always look so much alike they've been dubbed "the triplets" for the last several years.

Saturday I went to Christmas tea with my pal Yvette.  We had a lovely time, and even got to decorate gingerbread houses after the meal was over.  So much fun, and such a nice way to slow down from all the busy things of the season. 

Sunday was the usual church and work, with everyone going their separate ways.   Tom and I went and picked up supplies for a big project we'll be working on over the holiday break.  He is off 12 days, so we're tackling something I've been putting off for a while.  I'll post about it when we're done.  I was able to have a sit down dinner with 3 of the 4 of us before Lindsey had to leave for lantern tours.  Olivia had to warm her dinner up when she got in from the barn.

Monday was a regular work day for Lindsey, and the start of a 4 day break for Olivia.  I worked on laundry, and baked more cookies to continue our elf project.  I was short one batch of red velvet, so those needed to be done.  Olivia ended up going to help at one of her farms, since bad weather is expected this week and one of the owner's is still not well.  She worked on getting round bales of hay in for the horses and filling the wood shed in case of power outages.

Tuesday morning the kids slept in and I headed out to visit my brother and take Christmas cookies to him.  He fixed sausage, gravy and hot bread for our breakfast and it was so yummy!  He gave me a cute little light up gnome decoration. I put it by the tree to stand guard over the gifts, isn't it adorable?

Lindsey was on the last site of lantern tours, and didn't get home until almost 11.  The last tour starts at 8:30, but it takes a while for them to work through all the sites, and travel over to the new world.  She was so cold, and tired when she got home.

Wednesday, Lindsey had a babysitting gig from 7:00am - noon.  She got her school work completed before she left.   I met Yvette for a quick coffee and then made the arduous trek to the grocery store.  With an incoming winter storm, combined with being just a few days before Christmas, this was not a fun shopping experience...but it's done.   Olivia made her rounds to her horse folks dropping off gifts and baked items.  Lantern tours continued on through the night, with sold out shows again.

Thursday morning Tom worked from 6am until 9am, and then Christmas break started and he will be off until January 3.  Sleet, freezing rain and rogue snowflakes started around 5am, but by mid-morning the temperature started to rise to a balmy 34 degrees, and heavy rains set in.  We had a late breakfast then we all worked together to move items in the basement from the finished side, to the unfinished side.  A huge project will be completed over the holiday break, there will be a post coming.  I made a huge pot of potato soup for us for the next two days.  With the temperatures hovering so close to freezing, and precipitation continuing to fall, I made the decision to have one of us drive Lindsey to and from lantern tours in case things got slick.

Friday here's what we THINK is happening.   Olivia has to work.  Lindsey has to go feed the chickens and other animals where she's pet sitting, and then is supposed to have lantern tours tonight.  However, we have this mess of a weather situation expected.  Temperatures are supposed to plummet by 8am, and a "flash freeze" of all the lingering precipitation is supposed to take place making travel impossible.  High winds are then expected, causing possible power outages from downed trees.  By 6pm, our temperatures are supposed to be in the single digits with wind chills of -16.   The museum has to decide this morning if they are going to cancel tonight's performances (likely so, for the employees and patrons safety).   So....having said all of that, I have NO idea what the day, or the holiday weekend will be like. I'm getting this post done early and that'll be one thing off my list.

Merry Christmas to everyone!   Stay warm, stay safe!!