The Holidays

Cindy and I had a very nice Christmas at our new home. The holiday came up quickly for me, mainly because I was in Georgia over Thanksgiving and got behind on the preparations for Christmas but as usual things seemed to work out. Christmas Eve was over at Aunt Susie's for the traditional Holy Supper featuring potatoes several different ways, noodles several different ways, beans several different ways, cabbage several different ways, and mushroom soup. It's a Russian Orthodox strict fast meal with really nothing but starches and vodka. It inevitably leaves me with indigestion and a buzz. It is a good time although the crowd for the meal continues to shrink. This year it was just my aunt Sue, cousin Bobby, Cindy and me. Still, we had a very nice time and it's a very pleasant tradition despite the heartburn.

Santa did arrive at our new place

Christmas morning was just Cindy and I with the cats. It was a chilly morning so I started a nice fire and we spent a leisurely morning opening presents and eating Christmas cookies (indigestion, round 2). That evening, we headed over to sister Karen and brother Randy's home for dinner with a big chunk of the family on the Morford side. It was a very nice night in their beautiful home. We got to meet our great-nephew Magnus for the first time. He's a well behaved and happy child who is fortunate to have such loving and doting parents.The next couple days were spent leisurely opening a few presents and watching movies; really the first time in years we've just relaxed at home.

We had enough snow to run the snow blower in the middle of the month. I was way out of practice not having operated the thing in two years and I made some pretty crooked paths up and down the driveway. I need to adjust the little skid plates on the sides of the blower to better clean the surface but in general it worked well. The weather remained cold with a bit of new snow here and there so we ended up with a white Christmas, although it did turn mild near the end of the month.

Santa knew what I needed as an amateur home restorer and many of my presents were tools or tool related. I got a new cordless drill and impact driver set. While my old Craftsman drill works just fine (I got it as a kid) it is a pain looking for places to plug in and dragging extension cords everywhere. To go with it, I got a new drill bit set. My old drill bits were as as old as the drill itself and basically had no ability to put a hole in anything they were so dull. I got a nice new socket and ratchet set, the kind where the sockets work with both English and Metric bolts. Santa also brought me a 17 foot folding ladder, one of those that locks into several different positions and can be used as scaffolding or a step ladder. It holds 300 pounds so I'll be fine as long as a I stop eating Christmas cookies and potatoes.

While not a Christmas gift I did notice a good sale at Harbor Freight and went out and bought myself an electric chainsaw. I know enough about and had enough experiences with chain saws to have a healthy respect for them and think I can trim trees and cut firewood without dropping a branch on my head or cutting my arm off. We'll see. Chainsaws are an extremely useful but dangerous tool that require a lot of maintenance and care. I've hesitated to own one for those reasons, but really needed it for tree trimming and work on the firewood.

Home Depot continues to call for me to pick up our windows. I hope to do that over the next couple days and should find some time to install them. That will actually give me a project to write about in an upcoming blog.