It was the only topic of conversation around town. Every news outlet was reiterating the impact of the impending colossal storm. Panic was brewing. All of the bread had vanished from store shelves.
We braced ourselves for the impact.
And then the snow began to fall. It fell and fell and fell.
It dramatically fell for 10 whole minutes and then stopped.
It was irresponsible but I released Baby outside to play in the blizzard. She barely made it out alive.
Surprise! Mykey had MLK day off from work. Since we didn't realize in advance, and since we have zero creativity in planning new things, we chose to drive ourselves to Pigeon Forge to see what we could see.
And all that we could see was the other side of the mountain.
Despite my worry that the entire world would be in our way since it was a holiday, we had a fantastic time and my worries were unfounded. The entire world was leaving Pigeon Forge as we were driving in. Fantastic indeed.
We made our usual stop at Buc-ee's to gorge ourselves on burritos and Icees.
And then we hit the WonderWorks museum.
It was delightfully uncrowded and we strolled around unencumbered and unbothered.
Hmmm...I beginning to see that I may be an unpleasant person. What can ya do?
Baby loved the large piano and the bubble station. She spent a lot of time running across the piano keys making...music?
Sissy did the ropes course, laid down on a bed of nails, and bravely went on a ride with her Pa that completely tipped them upside down. She screamed the entire time but she conquered!
And Baby went to space in Sissy's suit.
Preparing for a spelling bee is difficult. Preparing for TWO spelling bees in a week is enough to turn your mind into slop.
Good thing Sissy has a young and resilient mind.
Spelling 993 words would melt my brain.
Sissy went off to the district bee and I stayed behind to nervously poop my pants in the comfort of my own home.
Sissy started out strong, despite the microphone being at hobbit-height.
She made it to the top 4 and then her brain went frantic and she misspelled enormous.
She knows how to spell enormous.
Sissy was upset and texted me from Michael's phone, "I OVER THOUGHT IT OK."
It's absolutely OK.
I am incredibly proud of Sissy and all the time she spent in a whirlwind of practicing words. She is amazing.
Congratulations to Sissy! Now, please! No more spelling for a while.
Sissy qualified for the school spelling bee again this year. She came home on the last day of school before Christmas break with the list of 450 words to practice. I asked her when we should start practicing. She said she didn't know when the spelling bee was so there was no reason to start.
Hmmm. Seems to me that they sent the list home so you could practice over Christmas break.
Sissy respectfully disagreed. And sometimes not respectfully.
I prodded her a couple more times about practicing. She continued to refuse.
Imagine my surprise when Sissy returned to school on Tuesday morning and I received an email inviting me to the spelling bee on Friday.
Uhhhh....crap.
Mykey quickly wrote her a program that would dictate the words and she would type them. The words would randomly appear until she correctly typed them 3 times each. That's a lot of typing and memorizing.
Did I mention there were 450 words and only 3 days to learn them? And did I mention that there were words on the list that I've never even heard before? And did I mention that I was worried about her ability to be prepared for this spelling bee? And did I mention that this line of questioning is incredibly annoying?
Sissy spent many hours the next 3 evenings clacking away on the keyboard. It was her only hope.
And then off she went to the spelling bee on Friday afternoon. Mykey had to attend because I nearly met my demise watching her last year - I'm much too nervous for that nonsense and didn't want my innards to explode.
The crowd started like this:
And slowly whittled down to this:
And then it was this:
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Well, it's 2026 and nearly time to get back to school and responsibilities.
Booo!
Mykey was back at work but Sissy had one more day to party. So we went wild and drove to Buc-ee's.
Baby was incredibly excited about it until we started driving. She didn't realize that she'd have to sit in the car for an hour to actually get to Buc-ee's. There was some crying and desperate attempts by me and Sissy to distract her.
It was a lengthy hour for all of us.
But we made it!
We poked around the store for a bit and tried not to lose Baby in the crowds. Then we had lunch and Icee's. Chicken nuggets and burritos all around please.
And then we went home.
We killed the remainder of the day at the play area at the mall. It's become a regular stop on our map these days. Sissy couldn't resist climbing to the top of the tree. It took a few attempts and a few tumbles, but she conquered.
Well, poo. I guess that's it for our loitering about every day. School starts tomorrow.
I wonder if Sissy remembers how to set her alarm clock.
Wanna know how you can tell if you're getting old?
Be too tired to celebrate New Year's Eve.
I'm standing smack in the middle of that field this year.
Actually, I blame my sick tummy.
Okay, okay, it's a sick tummy and my advanced age.
Dang it! I never felt completely well the entirety of Christmas Break. Darn kids and their grubby germs. Why can't they cover their mouths when they cough? Why can't they wash those filthy hands? I shake my cane at you!
So what was I talking about?
Oh yeah, New Year's Eve. I was sick and tired. Too sick and tired to make my traditional menu of bacon jam dip, meatballs, deviled eggs, and Muddy Buddies for dessert. Guess how delicious any of those items sound when your stomach hurts?
Instead I made the troops forage for scraps and I relied on the good ol' Pepsi man to coat my belly with fizzy lifting drink. But don't you go feeling bad for them - I made my traditional menu the next day.
We made an afternoon trip to Target to buy underwear and a potty for Baby. Mykey thinks it's time for the next step. I'm a little uncertain. But we'll plant the seed nonetheless. She chose Frozen undies because it's currently her favorite movie.
We didn't do much while we waited for the big event of trying to keep our peepers open until midnight. I mostly tried to pretend that my tummy wasn't trying to kill me.
We watched Back to the Future parts one and two, and then rang in the New Year. I fell asleep somewhere but awoke mere minutes before the ball drop.
Whew.
Happy New Year!
I hope 2026 isn't a jerk.
Mykey had some time off from work between Christmas and New Year so we spent our days being lazy. We puttered about the house, didn't shower until we dadgum felt like it, and enjoyed having nowhere to go.
Mykey and I built a puzzle.
Mykey insulated the garage door.
We made a couple of trips to Baby's favorite grocery store so she could drive her car.
And we wondered what Sissy looks like these days since she rarely emerged from her den. She's apparently undergoing scientific testing of hibernation.
It was lovely to be with my peeps without a schedule tying us down.
Why didn't you come over? I had plenty of leftover Christmas ham for you!
