Winter Solstice Among Other Things

December 21 was the Winter Solstice, the first day of Winter. When Jr. was going to make pancakes the day before, the smoke detector went off (not from his cooking, from bacon grease and water in the skillet). I told the kids to open windows but to make sure to close them before sundown since the next day was the solstice (it's been tradition this year on the solstices and equinoxes). We ate fluffernutter sandwiches again.

 

The 21st was also Short Girl Appreciation Day. I got a picture with my teenagers who were not standing on their toes nor was I slouching. Throughout the day, Jr. gave me hugs and told me that he appreciated me (not just because I was short, but because I do so much).

Also on the calendar for that day was Yule. Jr. wanted to listen to music. I told him he could only listen to music if it was with a Yule log fire like The Piano Guys or Josh Groban. Jr. found a YouTube video of Link standing by a fire. He put it on the TV then put Breath of the Wild music on the computer. Bwah ha ha ha. Clever boy.

 

The kids took turns doing online crossword puzzles for National Crossword Puzzle Day also on the 21st.

 

For Family Home Evening lesson, we read the nativity story in Luke 2 as we drove to West Mountain. As we drove along we saw sheep. We were like the wise men traveling to see the Christmas star. That day Jupiter and Saturn were the closest to each other in alignment with Earth that they have been in 800 years. Nice and bright... and around Christmas time. That's why it is known as the Christmas star. We drove to the other side of West Mountain with just the hill behind us with no house lights and farmland across the lake at the place we stopped so not a lot of lights there either. There were some other people with vehicles in the same area but it was a big area so no one was too close to each other. 

It was fun to see the planets. Looking closely with the camera, we could sort of see Saturn's rings and some of the moons of those planets. Jet loved seeing the sky with the half moon and stars.

 #LightTheWorld suggested getting as many family members together for a virtual hangout that day. I didn't suggest doing a video call like we did for Thanksgiving but while we were out looking at the Christmas star, my sisters, Mom, and I were all texting about it. Both of my sisters were also out looking at the planets and unfortunately my mom had rain. It was still fun to chat together and see pictures of my sister's view.

Everybody say, "Christmas Star!"

Since I finished reading A Christmas Carol on Saturday, we watched The Muppet Christmas Carol when we got home from seeing the Christmas star since December 21 is National Humbug Day. Every time Scrooge was going to say, "Humbug," in the movie, Nichole would say, "Happy National," before he said it then would say, "Day," after he said it. Heh Heh Heh.

 

It was also National Flashlight Day. We definitely used flashlights while we were out at the lake in the dark.

Pumpkin Pie

Let me tell you about our Thanksgiving pumpkin pie.
Wednesday evening I was originally planning to make the pumpkin pie so the only thing to use the oven for on Thanksgiving Day was the turkey.  However, there was a storm Wednesday evening.  Wind, lightning, thunder.  Then it snowed.  The power went out.  It was kind of exciting.  Luckily, Jeremy had already finished heating up the brine for the turkey and the dishwasher had already finished washing and was on the drying setting.
We had some fun with the lights out finding flashlights and candles.  We all went to bed somewhat early before the power came back on.
I got up early Thursday and decided to get the pie done so there wouldn't be anything in the way of the turkey.  Lucky woke up and helped me.  I thought I was smart and put aluminum foil down on the oven rack before setting the frozen pie crusts down.  Then I used a measuring cup to pour pie filling into the crusts.  I thought I could fill them more full that way.  Only a little bit of pie filling spilled onto the foil.  I was thrilled. 
Then I tried to push the oven rack back into the oven.  Ha Ha Ha Ha.  Splash splash splash.  Drip drip drip.  Ugh.  I turned off the oven, very carefully lifted the pies onto a cookie sheet on the stovetop, and mostly cleaned up the drips on the bottom of the oven.  I put new foil on the rack and very carefully put the pies back down and very carefully pushed the rack back in.  Sigh.
When the pies were done, I realized that because of all the dripping, the pie pans were stuck to the foil.  I was able to get one out but as I was getting the other one out, well... I tipped it a little too much. 

But you know what?  Eh, it's just pie.  Jr. Jr. walked into the room while I was getting the camera to take a picture.  He commented about us still being able to eat it, maybe about how it will still taste the same.  That's the right attitude.  I had the same attitude.  It's not like it was ruined.  I don't care that much about look, more about taste.  It tasted good, by the way.

So those were our Thanksgiving adventures.  The turkey turned out well.  Really yummy.  All the other food was good.  And a great family to share it with.  So much to be thankful for.

November 24 was also Celebrate Your Unique Talent Day.  A talent we had was saving two wishbones about a year to finally break them on Thanksgiving Day this year.  Wow, we're talented.