Life After Windbird, Day 129: ‘Tis the Season
Date: Monday, December 19, 2016
Weather: Partly Cloudy; High Temp 35, Low 20 degrees F
Location: At Home at The Studio, Falmouth, MA
My day started on a positive note. I went to Comcast, the cable company, to pick up a new cable box. I came home, hooked it up, programmed it, and I once again have television. As soon as I got home from that trip, the owner of this apartment complex came knocking on my door with the very large missing Christmas present for Jonah. The owner, Paul, and his wife live in the apartment just above mine, and UPS had delivered the package to them by mistake. Paul tried to catch me at home to get the package to me yesterday, but I was gone all day. And the first time he checked this morning, I was gone again. I guess I need to stay home a little more. Not long after Paul left, I heard heavy footsteps headed up the steps to Paul’s apartment and when the steps came back down, I saw it was a UPS delivery person. I ran out to talk to him and discovered that he had just delivered two more of my packages upstairs. He said he didn’t see the number on the side of the apartment. I could understand that, but when I asked him what I could do to make it more obvious, he just grunted and continued on. So, I guess I am going to have to get creative to make sure that #8 stands out clearly.
Heather had a very busy, long day today going into tonight and Jed had double duty tonight with Scouts and Health Board, so I volunteered to help out. I picked Jonah up from school and we rushed home to make sugar cookie dough and get in the refrigerator to chill before we went back to school to pick Sam up from after-school band practice. Sam has taken up playing trumpet and enjoys his once a week after school practice. Jed stayed in Woods Hole to pick Ollie up at 4 pm and by 4:45 we were all home and scrambling to fix dinner and bake our first round of holiday cookies. Sam wasn’t interested in helping make cookies this evening, but Jonah and Ollie each took a round of dough and made thumb print cookies. While they were doing that, Jed was making chocolate chip banana bread to take to the Scout party and I was making salmon cakes for dinner. Somehow, we managed to bake banana bread, Christmas cookies, and French fries for dinner in the same oven and still get Jed, Sam, and Jonah out the door by 6:25 pm. Ollie and I did clean-up and then went to the Scout meeting to take over when Jed had to leave for the Health Board meeting. Whew! Things do get busy here. The Scout meeting was a holiday party and a celebration of their successful popcorn sale this fall. It ended with those selling more than $650 worth of popcorn getting to throw pies at three of their very brave leaders. Things got quite rowdy, since all of the boys had just eaten all sorts of sugary goodies. When Ollie and I arrived, he chose a chocolate cupcake with heaps of red icing on it as his treat, and as he ate it, I could watch his energy level rising. When we walked out the door to go home, there was a little snow falling and Ollie immediately broke into a dance, twirling in circles while singing, “I’m dancing in the snow, just dancing in the snow. What a wonderful feeling to go dancing in the snow.” Yes, he has watched Danny Kaye’s performance of “Dancing in the Rain” and obviously he remembered all of the words. But despite, the high energy level of all three boys, they were cooperative in settling down and getting in bed without drama. Ollie had the hardest time settling down and I think it was that red food coloring. It really turned him on!
Tomorrow is another busy day. I will be helping Heather get ready for an after-school neighborhood solstice party and tomorrow evening I am going to a concert with friends. ‘Tis the season.
