Actually.. About 1am on xmas morning. Just finishing up some prep for tomorrow.. Nice day doing some last minute shopping.. I actually find that pretty relaxing… It was really nice driving through the post ice storm beauty..

Midway through my shopping day i rendezvoused with max downtown. We took a quick father and son pic on floorish

Then. We ran into our friends ray and jeff by total coincidence…and took them for a quick beer.

Around 7 we went up to tim and jens for a fondue extravaganza.. Really interesting stuff…

We got home around 10.. Then came the question of the tree.. We'd picked up a 'rescue tree' last night at Paquettes.. We had put some lights on it.. But gabe said it looked like a tree in a dentists office (no offense meant to dentists).

He was right.. It lacked soul.. What to do ? We started thinking of names to work from 'dentis-tree' ? 'Geome-tree'? 'Tigonome-tree' ?… Hm,,.. We settled on 'circuit-tree' for a while.. I got out a tone of circuit boar and we started to hang them…

Ok.. Clever.. But not pretty… It had to be right…

So.. Off came the lights…on went some simple blue lights ..Diane had managed to find the red bull garlands wed made last year from all the samstones that sam had collected… And the hanging cans of redbull… and the golden redbull angel max had made out of them

Now it felt like we were done.. And sam was part of the tree.. Thats what i needed to see..

Ok.. Got more prep to do.. More tomorrow…

Merry xmas ya'll…

Nitr all, nite sam

-me

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The power to our house keeps dipping. Every few minutes, the lights dim , the stereo falters, and the computers reboot (all unplugged now) .. We cant really complain.. Thousands of folks are still completely without power in vermont after the ice storm we had yesterday…

Diane commented that the power drops we were seeing seemed pretty local to the house. She illustrated by turning on the tea kettle which dimmed all the lights. She walked outside to check and came back to tell me that the was a wire broken leading into the house

Sure enough.. Looks like the neutral line to the house snapped when the cedars near the road,froze..

We called it in to green mountain power.. They called us back a few minutes later… It was our friend keven w. you know you live in a small place when that happens… He diagnosed the problem and put us on the list for a repair tonight…. He also told me to unplug all sensitive stuff in the house….

Sensitive stuff ? That would be me, i think .. Like this house.. Im feeling a bit low powered the last couple of days.. Maybe its the weather..or unresolved stuff at work.. . Or more likely the holiday itself.. Im feeling kind of low and slow… I always seem to this time of year… I know it will pass. It always does..

One cool thing about the day was seeing all the aftermath of the ice storm.. What doesnt break you makes you prettier it seems

It is nice having max up.. We drove home through the fog and drizzle with both boys in the back..

Almost like old times…

Almost……

Nite all, nite sam

-me

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Diane woke up Today and went down to get a cuppa tea. She looked at science sheet of ice everywhere. A couple of minutes later she walked out again and found out that a tree had just fallen across our driveway. More accurately, it just gently lay down but it was sure blocking our way out.

Early to go see Diane's folks and Endicott. We were going anywhere until we moved this tree. I got my sawsall and started limbing the tree, while Diane called our friend George.George brought over a chainsaw. And with his very wonderful help We had a cleared away in about 45 minutes.

Max arrived soon after with his new dog Io. Max got to visit with his grandpa a bit as well. Then max and i headed back to the house and met everybody for dinner. It was nice being together

We're heading back early tomorrow morning so I've got to get some sleep. More tomorrowNight all, night Sam-me

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Tonight is the solstice.. The longest night of the year..and the first day ofwinter And thats feeling more true than usual, . I was really looking forward to tonight because friend chris was going to do another burn this time it was old man winter . Chris has been working for weeks to get ready for the burn HE put up tents. invited fre dancers and built this beautifulWooden creature he was going to sacrifice to the fire …

Old man winter was ready. But mother nature wasn't it seems.. The afternoon brought icy rain with predictions of dangerous icing later in the evening. Most things are closed this evening due to dangerous driving conditions. . Chris wisely decided to postpone the burn until next weekend. It was such a shame…because all the work he'd done…. There was still a nice group of folks there and some fire spinning .. .. Though i left before they began…

It will be a good time next weekend now….

Ghanks for our hard work around these burns chris.. It means very much to us !

Nite all, nite sam

-me

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