Day 12.355: 2020 (tele-)vision

Exile #4 went to see the New Year in with her friends down the road - they have a sleep-over so there were just four of us to celebrate here tonight. E5N1 was keen to watch the "ball-drop" in Times Square, so we did:

I have to say as a ritual, it leaves me a little cold (not literally unlike those standing around in NYC I suppose) but I guess the point is the countdown and the cheering!

Day 12.354: The on-again off-again storm

Don't get me wrong, the snow has been very much "on" for most of the day. Not always as hard as this, but fairly consistently falling since late last night:

However, after early predictions of four inches or so, a couple of days ago the forecast changed to "a coating to an inch". Let's just say with two shifts of shoveling and more on the ground now, we have safely exceeded that (latest prediction range is 7-14 inches).

After our second round of snow removal, Exile #2 and Exile #3 posed for a photo:

Exile #2, realizing how tiny she looked, complained about the sloping driveway, so I suggested they swapped places - which did help (a little!):

Day 12.353: Exile #2's Sunday Column #279

Exile #2 writes...

It will come as a surprise to no one, I’m sure, that our local supermarket has already put out its display of Valentine’s Day candy. Nor, that our neighbors have taken down their Christmas decorations, or that many will be tossing their trees onto a New Years Eve bonfire in a nearby town. We, on the other hand are determined to squeeze every last drop out of our Christmas tree, and are determined to hang on to it until twelfth night, even though only the bottom third of our tree lights are still functional!

After that, we’ve heard a rumor that a local goat farm is accepting donations. Presumably goats are partial to a bit of balsam fir.

Day 12.352: Finding the cure?

For the third day in a row, we all found time to play Pandemic Legacy today - this might not be so remarkable, but our playing log shows that the previous two games were played in January and April. Today, against all early indications (and frankly later indications as well), we beat the "July" episode at the first attempt. The game involves finding cures for the diseases breaking out around the world. The "Legacy" variant has been taking us through a year of bad and worse developments to the basic story of disease outbreaks and a valiant team's efforts to get things under control. It's been a wild ride so far.

Later, Exile #2 and I finished watching the double video set of  The Cure's 2018 concerts - both marking 40 years of being a live band with sets including music going back to that first gig. That was a pretty wild ride too - and I loved it!

Day 12.351: Deboxing day?

I was feeling much better today, we managed another couple of games, four of us watched The Aeronauts while E5N1 went to a friend's house for some video games and pizza. We also started a tidy-up of the corners of the basement where we store - among other things - packing materials for new items "just-in-case".

None of these are for anything from this gifting season:

As for when we will actually get them out of the house - time will tell!

Day 12.350: On the feast of Stephen

I spent the morning feeling a little sorry for myself as I woke up still not feeling all that well (it's been several days but feels like more). Happily for everyone, in the afternoon I rallied significantly and four of us had a walk:

and all five of us played a couple of very enjoyable games.

Day 12.349: Simply having...

... a wonderful Christmas Day.

We very much enjoyed the magic of Santa, our exchanging of gifts and an excellent Christmas Dinner (for lunch), calls home to family in the UK and some games. I didn't take any photos of any of that. We also had our since-we-moved-to-Maine as-weather-allows traditional Christmas Day walk-on-the-beach - which was pretty good too!

We hope yours was wonderful too!

Day 12.348: Merry Christmas #13

Day 12.347: The Rise of Skywalker

We saw it. We loved it. Not perfect, but a fitting final chapter to the story I entered on one of my first visits to the cinema.

Day 12.346: Exile #2's Sunday Column #278

Exile #2 writes...

It’s been a musical day all round. We rolled up to church early (including E5N1 and his trumpet) to form a band for the opening song. Then, later on, we all headed to a nearby farm for some Christmas festivities, as Exile #3 and #4’s school choir had been invited to provide some music.

The venue was a barn, beautifully decorated for the holidays. Santa and Mrs. Claus were in attendance, and horse drawn hayrides were running along the nearby road, past the snowy fields. The choir was in good voice.

They sang a number of mini sets then closed out their stint with a hayride, singing all the way. Exile #1 managed to position himself for the perfect moment on their return:

(Turn on the sound!)

Day 12.345: Two more parties

Exile #4 had her teen karate holiday party this lunchtime and E5N1, Exile #2 and I went to another party this evening. Exile #3 was the only one who missed out on both, though I suspect that suited her fine. She spent at least part of the day in artistic endeavors - not this kind - she did these ink drawings a couple of weeks ago as gifts for her friends:

Day 12.344: Last day, first party

Today was the last day of school for the kids and the last day of work for me. E5N1 went off dressed like this:

And this evening, we went to one of his friend's houses for a holiday party. It's beginning to feel a bit like Christmas.

Day 12.343: Apparently, a trip to Target...

...without doing these things was unthinkable:

I don't make the rules (apparently).

Day 12.342: That snow surprise

I've noticed before how monochrome New England looks from the air in winter. When I was returning from my trip a couple of weeks ago, we flew over a snowy Boston for example:

Other monochrome winter sights look like art projects - this reminded me of an exercise where you draw a line through your drawing and invert all the colors on one side:

OK that was two surprises, or no surprise at all I suppose.

Day 12.341: Winter's return

After several warm wet days, winter has returned. It snowed all day and left the place looking quite pretty again:

It even made walking to the mailbox an adventure:

and made our outside lights more dramatic:

Day 12.340: Dancing and music

Observation week at the dance school started today. When I arrived at Exile #3's dance class I found just three dancers - Exile #3 and one of her young company colleagues - both exhausted from a big weekend of performances and another dancer just coming back off injury. After a slightly sleepy warm-up, they rallied themselves for some energetic jazz dance:

After dinner, I started work on a secret music project with E5N1 and Exile #2 and I worked on a song for church at Christmas Eve.

Day 12.339: Exile #2's Sunday Column #277

Exile #2 writes...

Today, Exile #3’s dance group was in action again, this time at a local nursing home. They danced through their entire repertoire to a very appreciative audience and, while they went off to change, Exile #1 and I provided some singalong Christmas songs.

E5N1 has a cold and has been coughing badly for a day or two, so we decided he needed to stay away from the seniors. He seems better tonight than he did yesterday, so hopefully he’s on the mend. In the meantime, he had an unexpected boost when our neighbors dropped by with some homemade Christmas Whoopie Pies. So beloved are Whoopie Pies in this part of the country that they have been declared Maine’s official state treat. They certainly went down a treat this evening.

Day 12.338: Rainy day, holiday show

After another warm (for the season) and rainy day, this evening I went to see Exile #3 and her company dance along with several other companies at the Casco Bay Movers annual Holiday Show.

It was a great showcase for the local non-competitive dance schools and companies and our girls did a great job!

Day 12.337: Party time

Exile #2 and I went to a birthday party tonight. Exile #3 is at a sleepover with her friends and Exile #4 and E5N1 stayed in to watch Shazam! and then took themselves off to bed.

Birthday girl and birthday cake!

Day 12.336: Something fishy

Exile #3 had only submitted this - her first major project as part of her painting class - in the morning, so I was surprised to see it already on display when I was in school for the concert yesterday.

Day 12.335: ...and whatever this is

Yesterday's mild rainy weather melted most of the snow and left everything looking rather drab:

So a fresh coating of snow was a welcome way to start today:

The girls had their second performance tonight, which went very well once again, Here they are afterwards looking glamorous:

...and whatever this is:

Day 12.334: More singing

The same group who sang the National Anthem on the ice in their jeans at the weekend scrubbed-up to perform on stage today:

This was the high school Holiday Concert - including the band, orchestra, two jazz bands and three choirs. Here is one of their numbers for those who'd like to hear them sing: