When I signed off last Tuesday, Kat was missing her second day of school because she was sick. We found out on Wednesday she had bronchitis, and she ended up missing school all week.
My Facebook followers already know this, but for those who don't, on Wednesday night we had a small smoldering fire in our attic. It's a long story, but the short of it is that it happened when we threw a breaker and tried to get our power back on, so we found it quickly and there was no damage. Our fire department was able to extinguish it with a portable water sprayer, so there wasn't even any water damage. It was caused by a bare wire in our attic, which has since been replaced by an electrician and inspected by our city codes department. In the near future (early January?) we'll have the electricians back out to update all the wiring in the house to prevent future mishaps.
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| A hole burned in a rafter, about the size of a softball. You can see the bare wire just to the left. |
One thing I'd like to say about the fire is that, although we had a good deal more time to evacuate than we would have had the fire been blazing, the idea of grabbing photos, keepsakes, etc., did not even cross my mind or Shane's. Kat had just gone to bed, so we woke her and got her into coat and shoes and out the door. Shane grabbed our laptop computers for no other reason than they were easily at hand and he thought it might make dealing with banks, insurance, etc., easier if we did incur a loss. We each grabbed our phones, wallets and keys, and we each moved a vehicle out of our driveway and into the driveways of some vacant homes on our street. That was it. To get anything else out simply didn't occur to us.
Now, you might be wondering what we did about the cats. We love our cats, but we did not bring them out of the house with us. Again, this was a smoldering fire, and while we were taking precautions and not trying to extinguish it ourselves in the dark, we did not feel as if the entire house was going to go up in flames. Our three indoor cats have never been outside, and in this case, we felt they were safer staying inside for the firefighters to rescue if it came to that.
Thursday was spent dealing with electricians, inspectors, and insurance adjusters (by the way, no claim was required), a sick child, and a grown child with a stalled car in the seasons first snow-fall of the year. It was a beautiful day. (sarcasm)
Friday evening, with Kat showing signs of improvement, we spent a short time at our friends' house for a small Christmas party. Saturday we returned to the same friends' house for a cookie exchange and brought home more cookies than we'll eat in a month!
Sunday was Christmas on my side of the family, at my Dad's house. We met my 80-year-old dad's new "girlfriend", feasted on ham and other good food, and played a gift exchange game. The party-poopers in my family far outnumber the partiers, so no one was too disappointed when Dad said it was the last big Christmas gathering he would host. Also -- my next-older sister patted my somewhat jiggly tummy and asked me if I'm pregnant. Oddly, she remained standing.
Monday was a great day (no sarcasm this time). We enjoyed breakfast out with Shane's dad and step-mom, and did a little shopping on our way home. Hitting the stores on Christmas Eve isn't bad when you aren't buying Christmas gifts; we were just buying a few things we needed for home. Breakfast held us over for the day, then we had an early dinner out with my daughter T and her husband M at a Chinese buffet restaurant. We weren't the only ones with a good idea - the place was packed and the food was delicious, especially the sushi. M somehow ended up with three fortunes that night, although he only had the one cookie. Fortunate, indeed!
Yesterday, of course, was the big day! Kat seemed thrilled with the gifts we (and Santa) gave her.
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| Queen Anne's Revenge! |
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| TARDIS socks! |
Shane and I don't exchange gifts, but we do fill stockings for each other and help Kat get one gift for each of us. I was very happy to get 4 skeins of sock yarn, a yarn cannister, a portable craft lamp and a couple of pairs of warm fuzzy socks. I made a ham and egg pizza for breakfast, and for lunch I literally pulled odds and ends from the fridge to snack on. We all sat around watching Kat play or playing with her, watching funny videos on Youtube, and relaxing in general. It was a very low key day that suited us all just fine.
And now...I hope to get back into some daily routines, sans holidays, illnesses and near-disasters. Washing dishes and doing laundry sounds good to me.
Ordinary is the order of the day.
