Several things have been conspiring to keep me away from the computer lately. The first, I already mentioned, was all the sewing I was doing for Christmas. Another thing is that it is really cold downstairs where my computer is. I'm writing now on my laptop upstairs, but the internet cable is downstairs, so I'll have to go down there to upload this entry. We have the thermostat set to 62 degrees F and my computer is in a corner between two windows. There is a wood stove next to it that caused us grief all winter last year, smoking up the house. When we used it last winter it made the little technology corner the toastiest in the house, but now we know that there is a hopeless configuration of chimney, coupola and silo and it's not unseasoned wood or lack of wood stove experience that was making it smoke, so we don't use it anymore. The other thing is that Aidan has pretty much stopped napping, so I have to come up with a new blogging routine for myself.

We spent four days on Long Island for Christmas, driving down on Christmas Day in a very intense snowstorm. We left here at 1pm, about an hour after it had started to snow fairly hard. My landlord came over for breakfast with his friend that he stays with up here (he lives in Manhattan) and told us that it was supposed to be rain south of Poughkeepsie. He was wrong. The two and a half hour trip took four hours and we listened to Otha Turner's trancey drum and fife music for much of the way. The music and the weather made for a dreamlike experience - in a storm like that, so many things that you usually take for granted become uncertain: that the roads will be plowed, that your car will work, that someone will be able to help you if you need it, that you will EVER make it to Grandma's. There was a lot of traffic and cars spinning out onto the shoulder or ditches regularly. We were so grateful to make it there safely and the snow was unspeakably beautiful.

We came home to about 18 inches of snow and the wind had done the most remarkable thing - there is a space around three sides of the barn about 20 feet wide with absolutely no snow at all and at the end of it is a tall drift. It made the task of shovelling slightly less horrifying. Steve did it this time thank goodness. I am still damaged from the last snow. The mailbox still has to be dug out, which is a big job. My landlord shovelled a little path to it, but the mailcarrier won't deliver the mail unless s/he can drive right up to it, which means shovelling out about three car lengths of plowed up snow. We did come home to some mail in the box though, so maybe not all the mail carriers won't leave the car - and I am so grateful that this package isn't languishing in a post office somewhere, my dear Aunt Alexa sent some memory laden Hungarian Christmas comfort food that I was thinking about and missing regretfully on Christmas Day. Köszönöm szépen.

We had a little incident the weekend before Christmas that I feel compelled to report on. On Friday night we ran out of oil. We heard the burner give a belch and then went out to a friend's house for dinner in denial. We came home to a cool house. I didn't even notice at first, but Steve knew right away, having grown up with this experience. I grew up in Texas. The next morning I called the oil company and they only do emergency visits on the weekends. There was some mix up with the phone and the name the account was in so we waited half of the shortest day of the year for ten lousy gallons of oil that we ran out of again on Monday morning. The temperature inside got down to 52 degrees. We were very lucky that the outside temperature was above freezing. This is why we have the thermostat set so low downstairs now and although it feels cold, it's positively toasty compared to the night we spent without oil.

And on a totally different note: I went outside this morning to help Steve get his truck through the ice in the driveway so he could go to work. When I came inside, Aidan had his pants down and his diaper off and he was handing me a swim diaper to put on him. He wanted to go to the beach. I sat him on my knee with my nose in his washed-last-night hair and said "oh you smell so nice and clean" and he said, "that's because I used the potty. I went pee in it". -- I can't coerce this kid into anything. He has to do everything completely of his own free will.