An Innocent Phone Call

That was all it started out with. Cole called his friend one day after school to see if he wanted to come over and play. His friend did but only after he was done checking out the presents under his Christmas tree. Cole got off the phone and told me that and then asked me why he couldn't look at his presents. I said he could, conjuring memories of the Christmas' in my youth, rearranging, sorting and shaking the presents all the while imagining the treasures I'd get.

Well, you can understand my surprise when Cole came waltzing into the kitchen minutes later saying "Look what Hiroo gave me!" I'm like all "Wait...no...what?!? You're not supposed to open the presents!" I hurried into the living room where Cole and Kaori had opened all their presents that were under the tree! Luckily there were only a few out there so there will still be surprises on Christmas morning.

Cole claims that "we just had a miscommunication."

Winter Wonderland

I figured that our family walks would end with the first few flurries of snow. But there we were, right in the middle of a winter weather advisory, blowing snow, dark night and cold weather walking Hiroo down the street. The walk was even suggested by the kids no less. And if that is not enough, it was after Kaori had helped me shovel the driveway and patio for half an hour and the kids were outside playing.

So as not to leave you with some romantic notion of a fresh, untouched blanket of snow with large, gently falling flakes, I must tell you that I'm done with this winter now almost even before it is starting. As I mentioned, I had to shovel the driveway tonight as well as last night. And even now as I sit here typing the godforsaken stuff continues to fall and accumulate on my driveway necessitating my further shoveling tomorrow. How I long for the days of summer when I can go back to complaining about mowing the lawn.