I asked Will to take a picture of us at the Austin airport.  It was 4:30 AM and I’m sure you can tell who was the most excited about a pre-sunrise flight.  Banjo Man looks stoic but he’d rather be in bed.

I love early morning traveling.

We’d had a fabulous Christmas, 12 days filled with family time and breakfast tacos and blueberry pancakes and cookies and turkey and gumbo, along with card tricks (Banjo Man) and chess games (not me) and painstaking paint repairs to the condo walls (definitely me).  Lots of laughs with the Funny Grandson, of course.  He spent four nights with us at the condo, a new record.  I think his parents were happy about that.

The FG’s favorite condo drink: a root beer float. It’s tradition!

While we were in  Texas our gas fireplace in RI stopped working.  The pilot light was dead and there was no fixing it.  I think we’re due for a new burner box, but our local stove repairman can’t come out until January 27th to even assess the problem.

January 27th?

This stove heats two-thirds of the main floor of our house!  Thank goodness we have another week of above-freezing temps in the forecast, along with three small portable electric heaters.

I think we’ll be moving down to the basement again when we have another cold spell.

So far I’m finding this winter a teeny bit stressful.