Hi, everyone!
On the first day of December, the town came and picked up our second leaf pile! They used the loader to scrape it into the road, then they picked it up and put it in a dump truck. It’s always fun to watch the town crew work! Three days later, Abelina’s daddy came to pick up the rest of the leaves from our lawn and borders. He took them away in his truck, so there wasn’t another leaf pile for me to play in.
Our apple tree lights turned on at dusk on December 2, just as they always do. Grandpa had to buy a replacement string of lights for one that failed last year, and all he could find was “cool” white. Can you see the color difference on the last tree?
The next Saturday, Grandma and Grandpa helped decorate the sanctuary at church for Advent. There was a new very tall stepladder this year! I made sure Grandpa was safe on it when he put the stars in the windows. Then I helped Grandma get the bird ornaments ready to put on the tree. The tree was so tall that Grandma had to use the same big ladder, just to reach the top of the tree! I couldn’t climb that high, so I didn’t get to pose with Uncle Bill’s bird this year. The decorations are very simple, but I think they’re pretty.
While Grandma was finishing decorating the sanctuary tree, Grandpa went out and found “warm” white lights at a different store. He bought some, and Grandma put them on the last apple tree right away. I packed up the first week of my reverse Advent calendar food to go to church the next day.
After church on Sunday, Grandma and Grandpa took me out to the bay. We made a stop on the way to get our Christmas tree! The lady at the Christmas tree farm recognizes me every year! I helped Grandma and Grandpa pick a tree, then I made friends with it before it went through the baler and into our car. This is the first Christmas tree friend that has ever come to the bay with us before going to Fairport!
We had some winter preparation work to do at the bay! I helped Grandma and Grandpa put up the deer fencing to protect the rhododendron flower buds from being eaten. The rhododendron grew a lot this year, so it was a little hard to get it all protected! There was a big branch down in the yard, and I helped Grandma clear part of it away. Grandpa finished the new supports for the higher floor in the front of the boathouse.
The weather forecast was for a bad windstorm, starting Monday afternoon, so we headed back to Fairport on Monday before the wind got too strong. Grandma had an appointment to meet James and Thomas at One World Goods to buy their Christmas ornaments. They were at a swimming lesson right next door! While Uncle Steven was waiting for the boys to get dressed after their lessons, Aunt Kara called him to say the power was out at their house. So after James and Thomas chose their ornaments and Grandma arranged to buy them, everybody came to our house for dinner. It was fun to have Uncle Steven’s family as unexpected dinner guests! We had some strong wind gusts, but didn’t lose power or have any damage from falling branches.
After the windstorm, we had a little bit of snow! The apple tree lights looked very pretty in the snow, but it all melted the next day. On Friday, Grandma and Grandpa took me back to the bay. We had a big surprise! When we got there, the contractor had his landing craft and Bobcat at work, moving and reinforcing the armor stones he had left in August. Grandpa was able to remind the contractor what the original plan had been, and the south shoreline is now better protected. Grandpa got some of the flooring placed in the boathouse, too!
Last Sunday was a busy day! My Christmas cactus was in full bloom. I packed up the second week of food items for my reverse Advent calendar to go to church. In the afternoon, we went to Tuba Christmas! This year, because of the pandemic, only one hundred low brass players could be on stage. Grandma and Grandpa and I went early, so we could save our favorite seats in the balcony for Uncle Steven’s family. All the brass instruments had to have “face masks” on their bells, and the players had special masks to go around their instrument mouth pieces. After Tuba Christmas, we all had Grandma’s homemade pizza with custom toppings for James and Thomas.
On Monday, Grandma picked up all the branches that the wind had blown down on Saturday. There were three cans full! On Tuesday, we had sunshine. I helped Grandma make the pieces for a gingerbread house for James and Thomas to assemble and decorate. There was a lot of dough, so we were able to make some extra strips, gingerbread men, and horses for their project over the weekend.
Yesterday, we broke a local record for warm temperature that was set in 1894! Today, it’s sunny but cooler again and tomorrow we might get more snow. Grandma says a snowy, slushy day is a good day to stay inside and put up our Christmas tree!
Love,
Lion-san