I Was Attacked by Frosty the Snowman

Believe it or not, I was attacked by Frosty the Snowman. Well, not the whole, "all a livin'" Frosty, but a small piece of him. Snow, in the South, can cause all sorts of strange behaviors. We had tons of big, juicy, snowflakes that fell on well saturated, but not frozen ground and the natives went crazy for the 14 hours the snow lasted. We made snowmen, though they were quite dirty. The snow just wasn't deep enough to give full coverage to the just falling leaves and the rain saturated ground, but we made snowmen and have the pictures to prove it.

Anyway, a couple of days after The Big Snow, I started on my annual cookie baking fest by making dough. One of the recipes called for pecans. Since we have about 20 gallons of pecans in various freezers, I opened the freezer in the kitchen and started digging around to see if I had any in there (so I wouldn't have to walk to the shed), when, !#@BAM!#*%, Frosty hit me on the top of the head. All went black and stars were swirling.

After a few seconds, I recovered enough to look around to see what hit me, then I stormed out of the house to see who was responsible. Apparently one of my children thought it would be a good idea to store a miniature (12" tall) Frosty in the freezer until summer. Frosty and the plate on which he was sitting fell from the top part of the freezer and hit me right on the top of my head.

Can you believe Frosty would do such a thing?

We've Met the Sugarplum Fairy

Nutcracker is over. Our 150 mile daily commutes are done. Four hour rehearsals are done. My late nights and early mornings are done. Sticky, hair gelled hands are done (until after Christmas). Believe it or not, I am experiencing a sense of loss. Loss of what, I don't know. Sanity?

After two months of extra rehearsals, a week of daily stagings and dress rehearsals, and six performances, what is apparent this week is how much Princess has matured. During past performances, I have been responsible for hair, makeup, and costume changes. This year Princess did her own makeup and costume changes. Though I pulled two backstage duty details and had to produce umpteen regulation ballet buns, complete with sticky gel and stinky hairspray, I got to watch from the audience a few times. I enjoyed my backstage time this year. I chatted with other mothers, laughed, knitted, and taught a few girls how to knit, with very little drama.

Of course, there was production drama - the Sugarplum Fairy was sick, the Chinese principal's new costume kept splitting when she did the tumbling pass and had to be redesigned after dress rehearsal, a theft occurred backstage, and Mother Ginger's Wig went AWOL. Yet, none of these mini-dramas were ours.

Princess had a wonderful time and she never forgot to say thank you for driving and waiting - not even once. She is old enough now to appreciate the sacrifices made on her behalf, and she does. That is indeed a good thing.

Now, I can begin Christmas preparations. I had plenty of opportunity to work on Christmas gifts while I was waiting, but there is still much to be done.