Sometimes all you can do it is laugh.

I laughed.

I mean, what else could we do?

We were spinning. On a black sheet of ice called a road. In a truck. On tires with little or no tread. Late at night.  On a deserted street.

Even though we were college aged beauties, our winter driving experience combined was inadequate. We were from New Mexico. Land of Enchantment. Land of Rarely Any Snow. Land of If There Is Snow It Melts By Noon.

Beautiful place. Plenty of sun. A scarcity of black ice. Beautiful indeed.

But we were in Idaho. Land of cold wind and black ice.

Black ice isn't very nice.

It makes you do things you don't want to do. Like go into a 360 spin when all you wanted to do was go straight.

I know this because this is what happened.

My younger sister was driving...er...at least she was at the wheel at the time. Her eyes were filled with terror as she looked at me, the question "What do I do now?!?!??" screaming from them.

"Sit back and enjoy the ride, I guess."

What else could we do? Yeah, turn into the spin, but on ice I wasn't sure it would make any difference. So I looked at her....

...then I laughed.

Ahhh....the sounds of Christmas

I love Christmas movies! They make me happy. Can you name which of my favorite Christmas movies these quotes are from? Good luck!!

"What are you? Some kind of wild animal??"

"Don't ever say Hickory Honey Ham again!"

"There are two things in this life I hate: heights and jumping from them."

"I'm singing. I'm singing. I'm in a store and I'm singing."

 "If you can't believe, if you can't accept anything on faith, then you're doomed for a life dominated by doubt."

"Daddy's gonna kill Ralphie!"

"Keep the change, you filthy animal."

 "I love being home. But I don't like being left behind. Now I am the one going ahead. I am not afraid. I can be brave like you."

"I invented chill."

"Isn't there anyone who knows what Christmas is all about?"

"Put the cookie down....now!"

"The thing about trains... it doesn't matter where they're going. What matters is deciding to get on."

Cold is cold

You know that favored Christmas song, "Baby, It's Cold Outside," right?

Well, Baby, it is cold inside.

We woke up this morning to no power. This means no lights, no clocks, no Christmas tree lights. But most worrisome, no heat.

It was cold, alright. Cold INSIDE!!

We have a gas fireplace, so we should have been fine. Well, in theory. Theory, because when we attempted to turn it on 2 weeks ago, it wouldn't light. So we took it apart, and cleaned it up. Still a no go. But this last weekend when we talked to my sister, she told us something that we should try. So we tried it. The pilot light lit...Yay!!...but when we turned on the heat, it wouldn't light the burners. Ugh!!!

Needless to say, this morning was rough.

My poor teenagers. They sleep in the basement and they were freezing. Luckily, one of them had to get up and get ready for school. The other one was sick and made her way up to my bed. I proceeded to add blankets to all the other sleeping children.

Hubs, trying to be helpful, lit every scented candle we own downstairs. Individually, they smell great and are just the right amount of aroma. But collectively, they are a little much. Okay, a lot much. Mixing Pumpkin spice, Pine Tree, Lemon...something and Apple Pie was enough to make one sick.

Cold and sick.

But not to worry. The electricity came back on 5 minutes before we had to leave.

Baby, it's just plain cold all around.