One of the great things about having kids is that you get to watch all the old Christmas shows you watched as a kid. It's truly amazing how you completely remember the old songs and characters - Yukon Cornelius, Berger Meister Meister Berger, Heat Meiser, etc. Last night I found myself singing every single word along with a young, red headed Kris Kringle as he taught the Winter Warlock to put one foot in front of the other, so soon he'd be walking out the doo-ooo-ooor. After that classic, a newer, computer animated Rudolph and the Land of Misfit Toys was on, and let me tell you. Computer animation has nothing on those old-fashioned shows.

This afternoon it started to snow and so now, at midnight, there are about three or four inches covering the ground. It looks beautiful, all the bushes bending under the weight of the snow and the moon making it look very bright outside. I was trying to sleep, without much success, when I was reminded of a funny story.

When we moved from the city to the 'burbs two years ago, we were all set to spend our first night in the new house. All was well until about 2:00am, when this horrible grinding noise started outside and wouldn't let up. It was a rhythmic sound that was unlike any we'd ever heard before. It went on for hours. It was terribly loud and creepy and we couldn't figure out what it was (thought maybe it was some weird middle of the night suburban thing), but it eventually stopped and we went to sleep. The next night, the same thing happened and that's when we panicked. And that's when we figured it out - the reason the house was empty before we bought it, the reason we got such a great deal, the reason we couldn't understand why nobody snapped it up before us. The land behind us that was supposedly 'conservation land' had to be some sort of oil drilling facility or steel mill and it only operated in the dead of night!

Did I mention it was the end of February? Did I mention that it snowed every day and night? Did I mention that the sound of a snowplow's blade grinding along the street's pavement sounds like what I'd imagine an oil drill must sound like? Yes, it was just a couple of snowplows clearing all the town's streets to keep them clear for the morning. Eventually we figured it out but not until after we'd planned how to sucker some other poor family into buying the house that we'd been lured into purchasing.

And, speaking of suburban experiences, when I came downstairs a bit ago to do some work, I was sitting in my office watching my cat play with a toy in the living room. Except it turns out, the toy was giving Midnight a run for her money, and it wasn't a toy at all. It was a mouse. In my house. We're used to Midnight bringing home all sorts of furry creatures, but we have never hosted one in our own home. Lucikly, my cat is a fierce hunter and she had that mouse in her mouth very quickly, whereupon (after I woke my husband up) we chased Midnight around the dining room table until she dropped the mouse into a plastic bucket and the mouse was deposited outside. Very near the conservation land that we once thought would gush petroleum at any moment.

A couple of weeks ago I was bemoaning the fact that I never win anything - but it looks like my luck it may be a changin'! I returned from vacation to discover a voice mail that I'd finally won a free sandwich at my favorite deli. I guess the 300 business cards I've desposited into their fishbowl over the past two and a half years have finally paid off. I am the proud winner of a sandwich of my choice - which will be my all-time favorite turkey, provolone, lettuce and mayo on a sub roll.

So, Thanksgiving has come and gone, we're back from a lovely week on the beach, and now it's back to reality. All my holiday shopping is completed and our holiday cards are all written and ready to be mailed. This year's cards have a theme - basically it's "Red Sox World Series Winners." John got us all Red Sox jerseys and hats and we donned them for a family photo. I figure he's waited his whole life to be able to claim he cheers for a winning baseball team so we'd better let him enjoy it. It may be another 86 years before he can make that claim again.