Aaaaand, she's off!

Well, she's always been a couple bubbles off plumb, but you know what I mean. I'm going to miss the snowstorm and will pray the power stays on for my husband and for Hershey, who will remain here holding down the fort.

The tree trimmers have been working since last summer's storm to remove potentially hazardous trees and limbs. Power lines now have a wide margin of space on either side and as long as the snow isn't too wet or too heavy, the electricity should stay on. The weather service is predicting high winds, as well, however, and some of those root systems were compromised during the storm. There's no way to tell which trees might be ready to topple.

We're hoping for the best and preparing for the worst.

The grandchildren's cards look pretty cute. After I mailed them I realized I should have covered the staple with a sticker, or made some kind of label for the top part of that red card stock. Winnie would have been much more creative with it, I'm sure!

Here's the method. Basically I filled small plastic bags (I used acetate sleeves for greeting cards, the kind that have an adhesive closure, but zip-lock-top bags work, as well) with a mixture of raw oats and sparkly confetti. I bought a huge bag of the confetti years ago, thinking it would be good for something, and it's perfect for reindeer food.

Which means I've used it exactly twice: yesterday, for the current crop of young grandchildren, and about six or seven years ago, when the two older ones believed in Santa and reindeer and magic. OH, WELL. It's served its purpose and there was nothing else shiny in the craft closet that I could have used as a substitute for sparkly confetti.

I found a suitable free clip art image of a shiny reindeer that had plenty of space to include the poem, which reads:

MAGICAL REINDEER FOOD

Sprinkle outside your home at night.

The moon will make it sparkle bright.

As Santa's reindeer fly and roam,

this will guide them to your home!

All together now: AWWWWWW.

Glue that printed piece onto a piece of card stock large enough to cover the bag of reindeer food and fold over the top and staple it all together. Signed, sealed, delivered – Santa won't miss their houses now!

I'm hand-delivering one of them today. The rest have been mailed, followed by a cautionary text message that Mom might want to be nearby when the children open the cards. The USPS is not known for handling with care, and I don't want her to have to deal with a reindeer food disaster. Mom appreciated the text, especially after opening a large box today that was mostly packing peanuts.

My walking date yesterday afternoon was great – FIVE miles! The weather was lovely; I didn't even wear a coat. I'm glad I made time for it on what will probably be the last beautiful day of 2012.

As I wrote yesterday, I hope to continue the daily blogging, but it might end up just being the daily photo. WHICH COUNTS AS A POST (for NaBloPoMo) but feels like cheating to me. Have a great weekend! If you celebrate Christmas, I hope your shopping is done, your gifts are wrapped and mailed and you'll have plenty of time to bake cookies, make candy, and maybe even relax a bit as you prepare for The Big Day.