Weekly Wrap Up - Winter Arrives Early

Monday was a regular day.  Lindsey was up early to work on school work before putting in a full day at the museum.  Olivia went to work early as well.  I went to town to pick up stamps so I could get Christmas cards in the mail.  I also ran by the thrift store to pick up a couple of used pair of jeans for Olivia to wear to work.  I worked on laundry when I got home.  Then I moved on to Christmas food preparations, with my traditional fudge being my first task, then I moved on to gingersnaps.

Tuesday Lindsey was home, with the exception of play practice in the evening, followed by jiu jitsu.  Olivia worked, and then came home to grab a quick shower before heading off to jiu jitsu.  She ended up having to teach the younger kid's class and the older kid's class.  The instructor for one class was stuck in traffic on the interstate, and the instructor for the other class was out sick. 

I spent the day baking several batches of sugar cookies and chocolate chip cookies.  We had a late dinner when everyone got home.

Wednesday Olivia headed out to work early.  She's learning new skills this week so she can work on training and exercising the horses.  She will be fully in charge of the farm from December 23-January 8 and will need to work the horses who are left behind while the owners head out to Florida for a big show. 

An ice storm was scheduled to move in late Wednesday through Thursday, so I spent the day getting things done in case we lost power.  I finished baking all the cookies (red velvet cake mix cookies, and several batches of chocolate cake mix cookies).  I also made three large batches of muddy buddy chex mix to use up extra cereal and chocolate chips.   At some point during the afternoon, I ran out and picked up these cute little dog Christmas cookies at the dog bakery...yes, our town has a dog bakery.

Lindsey had dress rehearsal/friends and family night at Lantern Tours. She is in 3 of the plays, but predominantly is in the 1820's skit.  The two rounds of shows for the night were over by about 6:30, and she was able to get home before any precipitation started.  I've never seen her in this costume, so I was glad that she wore it home instead of changing into her normal clothes.

After another late dinner, the girls helped me to make peanut butter balls, which wrapped up my treat making for the year.  Freezing rains started shortly before 10pm, but thankfully Tom was able to get home from work before it got back.

 

I was up and down several times during the night to check the weather and all was clear, up until about 6:30am Thursday morning.  Sleet and freezing rain moved in pretty quickly.  The museum closed for the day and rescheduled the night's Lantern Tours to next Tuesday. Tom drove Olivia to work since it was getting nasty pretty quickly.  Her employer drove her home after the morning shift was over.  By the time she was scheduled to go back for the afternoon shift the temperatures had warmed up enough that the roads were greatly improved, so Olivia experienced her first time driving in winter weather alone.  She did ok, and I prayed the whole time until she texted me that she was there.  She returned as it was getting dark, and I was glad to have her back home again.  At least dinner was a bit earlier for a change!

Friday morning we were met with "freezing fog".  Olivia drove herself to work, and forgot to text me she was there...she now regrets that, ahem.  I went to get groceries, and now remember why I NEVER go to the store on a Friday.  Lindsey rode along because she needed to look for a new pair of work boots.  At store #1 we ran into one of the ladies she babysits for and chatted briefly.  Within 10 minutes of being in store #2, we got a call from the lady at the first store, she'd locked herself and her 2 year old out of the car.  Lindsey left me at the store and took my car to go pick them up and get them home, then came back for me.  I guess it's good that your kid has keys to other people's homes, ahem.

I can't seem to wrap my head around the fact that Christmas is next week!  Are you ready, or still working on items?