A Busy January

When we moved here with all our new wedding gifts we discovered some of our stuff didn't fit in the new kitchen. So a lot of our serving and dining stuff went in the basement. Every time we needed any of it we would dig it out of a box, wash it out of paranoia since it was kept in a dusty basement, and store it back in the basement when we were done with it.

Since the time we moved in I have been telling Ben that we needed to get some type of cabinet for our dining room or kitchen. And we finally got it...

So now we don't need to go into the basement if we have more than 2 people over. :)

Oh, and we did some snowshoeing after one of our big snows. It's starting to look like a real winter around here (for the first time sine we arrived). We've already had 3 snow days, 2 delays, and an early dismissal so far this year!

Before you think we're lucky we get so many free days off, remember that a snow day is due to large amounts of snow...snow that requires shoveling to get the cars out the next day. Worse yet, a delay just means you wake up at the same time you usually do to spend a couple hours digging out your car in the dark and then drive to work on busy, snow-covered roads. Then you spend the entire day hoping it doesn't snow more before you get home so you have time for dinner instead of spending the whole night shoveling.

We also finally got the Christmas cookies Ben's parents shipped to us after our holiday visit. Ben was so excited when he finally saw that box on the porch it was too funny! I think he may have been skipping to the door.

A Christmas Cannon

Yes, we realize it's a little late for Christmas posting, but considering the last post was from October you shouldn't complain. Besides, this isn't really about Christmas. The title isn't misspelled either.

We were on our 6 hour drive from Newberry to Macomb on Christmas Eve listening to some Christmas tunes. Ben took over driving after lunch and I was sitting in the passenger seat with my eyes closed to shield the brightness of the sun reflecting off the snow covered surroundings.

Christmas Canon by the Trans-Siberian Orchestra quietly begins playing on the radio. About 8 bars in, just as the violins begin playing, Ben makes a sound. It sounds like he's clearing his throat or trying to hack something up. This isn't especially odd since we're both recovering from a splendid pre-Christmas cold.

About 2 seconds later he makes the same sound, but at this point I am looking at Ben, prepared to offer him a tissue. This time I notice as Ben softly clears his throat, his cheeks puff out more than a typical throat clear would. Before I can say anything a third soft cough comes a couple seconds after the previous one.

"What are you doing???" I ask this as if he's crazy, which is pretty common around us because he acts a little nuts fairly often.

Ben looks over at me as he makes his fourth soft hack and says very matter-of-factly (making me sound crazy for even asking), "It's a Christmas cannon."

This is when I realize he isn't clearing his throat but making soft booming cannon noises like a five-year old kid play war. I guess the boredom of the long drive caused him to take the "Canon" portion of the title literally and provide a little comedy to our trip.

Too funny!