I’m dreaming of a brown Christmas

Apparently the weather just isn’t going to make up its mind this year. After a rather pleasant couple of weeks with mild breezy weather to end November, the “wintry” month of December has brought nothing but heat and random one-day cool fronts.

We’re currently in a burst of cool. Today’s high will end up somewhere around 50°. But yesterday it was 81°. The day before that was 61°. The day before that was 82°. Yesterday, roses were blooming in my backyard and the ants were busily building their palaces in my lawn. By tonight, they’ll be gone again.

There’s really no use hoping for a “white Christmas” in this part of Texas. It only snows here once in a blue moon and when it does, it generally doesn’t stick anyway (the kind of stuff we’d generally ignore when we lived in Colorado).

This year, all I’m asking for is a brown Christmas – just like the ones I used to know.

Brown means it’s cooled off enough for the leaves to fall off the trees and for lawns to go dormant. Brown means I won’t be firing up the lawnmower the week before Christmas. Brown means wearing a jacket and not shorts. Brown means something less than 80% humidity. Brown means drinking hot chocolate and not eating ice cream.

You know, something resembling autumn. (Winter is too much to ask for around these parts.)

The Boy and I get all lit up

Well, as predicted, we ended up with lame-o lights on the bushes in front of the house again. I tried putting them on the house like real people, but in the end our house is too tall and I am too unsteady on the ladder. Perhaps next year I’ll get a scissor lift and knock it all out in about ten minutes. Until then, our magical shrub display will have to suffice.

The Boy is happy with it though, mainly because he can see it from his bedroom window. I’m happy because I’ve discovered that the mystery switch in our front hallway is hooked up to some external plugs for holiday lighting. How nifty is that?

An Off-Off-Off Broadway Debut

The Boy has his first official acting gig tomorrow night – he’s playing the innkeeper in his day care’s Christmas show. (I refuse to call anything involving preschoolers a “pageant”.) I’m not sure if he’s the sole proprietor or if an assistant innkeeper is involved as well.

He has exactly two lines – “There’s no room in the inn” and “You can stay in my barn” – that he’s been practicing for a couple of weeks now. I hope it goes well. He seems to be pretty excited about it. More excited than I am about sitting through it all just for two sentences.

It could be worse though. They notified us about the play by putting notes on their backpacks one day and I noticed that one kid is playing “donkey”.

Crabby, cranky mammals holding hands

The Wife continues to be pregnant. Another trip to the doctor this morning confirmed that, as well as the fact that she’s made no discernible progress towards actually getting the little stowaway outside of her. The doctor is now cautiously preparing us for the fact that an induction may not actually happen in two weeks. As you can imagine, The Wife was thrilled to hear that.

The Dog is mad because we moved her crate out of our bedroom to make room for a bassinet. I personally don’t see why it matters where we lock her up when we’re not at home. How is my office any worse than a corner of our bedroom? She still has her ginormous round bed that she sleeps on in our room at night. Anyway, she’s pointedly ignoring me and refusing to eat. I don’t care.

Finally, I haven’t been cranky per se, but I have been sick for the past couple of days. Nothing serious, just a mild head cold, but that’s plenty enough to keep me miserable and unproductive. Fortunately, I seem to be back on the path to wellness now.