Christmas Week

Rain on the roof is a lovely sound in the spring but pretty sad in December. Especially if you live in a ski town and hundreds, if not thousands of skiers are pouring in.
We drove home from Portland Christmas night ( with all three cats, see Caturday.com) and heard it start that night as we were watching TV. Oboy. There goes our snow. It had been so beautiful skiing the Ellis and up at Eagle Mountain before we left. I was hoping to just hit the trails this week.
It is generally a quiet week work wise, then after New Year's everyone decides it is time to get going on their projects. I remember some winters we didn't even get out much to ski, though usually we would go down to the Saco below the house and do an hour through the woods. We've passed our darkest day of the year with the sun coming up around 7:18, I think and getting dark by 4PM. Now we start gaining and Olof says it is already lighter. By February it is very nice and we'll run up to Jackson at the end of the day for an hour.
I have the last of the Christmas ham on the stove turning into very hammy pea soup. I remember reading once that eternity is two people and a ham. They got that right! Good thing we have a friend working in the studio with a good appetite. He'll help finish it off. I'll make some corn muffins to go with it.
Today is my birthday and I got a card from my in-laws and Sally in Florida. It always surprises me when someone remembers it since I forgot until Olof remembered. And one of my sister's usually sends a card. My mother forgets! I guess with six kids it's hard to remember.
We tore out the old furnace room yesterday and the ductwork. Today Olof picked up the new ductwork though it looks like the furnace won't arrive until the second week in January. As long as we don't have any of those fifteen below nights we will be ok with the monitor heaters and the wood stove. Pretty cozy, actually.
It has been warm and is supposed to stay warmish with sadly. More rain on the way. I guess that is the downside of global warming. It's easier on your heating bills but rain instead of snow in the winter is lousy.
It will get better.