TGIF

It's been a rough week on several fronts (grief for Lao Gong, weather, school interruptions, some general malaise) but has ended on a high note with the arrival of Gommie on Wednesday evening.

We have

• "Tangled," or meditatively doodled, using the inspiration, skills, and materials of my retreat last weekend;
• baked delicious saltine cracker toffee;
• gone for a haircut for Bud, who I'd started to call "Bieber boy;"
• played Mario Kart (despite some 60-odd years of driving, she's awful and spent most of the time laughing too hard to drive), Infinity (Gommie was a good sport, but this is a challenging game if you've never played any video games before), and Zoo Tycoon (essentially, you create and operate a zoo, which Gommie says is more her style and speed); 
• had take-out pizza, also homemade chicken rice and gravy, scrambled eggs which Sis made for breakfast, Indian buffet lunch when the kids were at school, and gumbo tonight;
• showed off piano playing and magic card tricks and line-dancing moves;
• watched beautiful snowfalls yesterday and admired the frozen floe on our local river;
  
  
  
  
  
• walked outside some, avoiding black ice, in 14F cold--and it's going to get colder and snow some more;
• (grown ups) watched episodes of "Miss Fisher's Mysteries" and "Foyle's War";
• watched, with the kiddos and Mama, Maleficient (tonight, maybe, Big Hero Six), and without Mama watched The Hobbit: Desolation of Smaug;
• had several lovely chats already;
• and we still have so much to do:  more movies, ice skating, hockey, and that 1-6" of snow!!