Christmas, Lexington, Snow, and a Shark Hat

Christmas happened. Approximately December 25th, if I recall correctly. There were presents, meals, happy 70 degree weather. Henry didn't destroy the tree. (Score!) It was relaxing to be home together, and Hal got better at letting James comfort him instead of only his mom. (Hooray!) It was fun to fill Hal's stocking for his first Christmas. (Awwww!) Boxes and wrapping paper were greatly enjoyed for many days. (Bonus present!)



Before school started again, we went to Lexington: the horse capital of the country, nay, the world, nay, the universe!  (Or should that be "neigh"?) Sadly, on January 2nd, horses and their many attractions are apparently closed for the winter and holidays. We had fun driving past the horse farms, though, and it's just like Seabiscuit or Secretariat make it seem. One second you're in downtown, and not four minutes later you're surrounded by sprawling fields with white fences around them.

Note: This is a simulation and not a real horse.

If you're in Lexington and are unable to see horses or the Toyota factory (also tragically closed!), don't worry: Lexington is also famous for bourbon! There were dozens of upscale bars in the few square blocks we walked. It was impressive. At the visitor's center, they have different local bourbons you can puff some air into and smell. I couldn't tell much difference, but then I'm not a connoisseur. They all smelled appropriately fermented and dusty, though.

Inhale Lexington by wafting your favorite bourbon!

If you'll recall from last year, this area isn't well-equipped to handle snow. Remember that east coast blizzard a few weeks back? We didn't ever get more than 11 inches or so (all told, with melting in between storms, so it never got to be more than 8" at once at our house) but we were again "snowed in" for a week. The local school districts had even longer before they reopened. We did not get the enormous quantities of snow that, say, Washington D.C. got, but we got a fair amount for our area.

On the first day of snow, it was supposed to stop snowing at noon and then turn to rain that afternoon,which would freeze into ice overnight. So at noon on the first day we decided it was our best hope to get to the store. Our poor little 2-wheel drive Honda does great...except in snow. I think it's afraid of cold weather, frankly, and we should've just sent James in the truck, but nooo, we thought we'd make a "trip" out of it and all go together. Never, ever again. We only spun out of control once on the way there, and only got well and truly stuck on the way home at the stop sign downhill from our house. It had snowed three inches from when we left to when we returned. We only slid into one mailbox before two strangers with trucks helped tow us to the grass by our uphill driveway (no way was that happening!). The next day was the warm eye of the snowstorm, and while I was shoveling a nice old man in a bulldozer was plowing the road, and he helped dig our car out so we could get it back up the hill.

Henry remains undecided in his feelings towards snow. He was too busy staring at it to really feel much emotion towards it. We put him on a blanket atop the snow and, very uncharacteristically, he just lay there without moving, and waited patiently for us to take him back inside. He couldn't get enough time staring out the window at it, though. Despite his lack of snow, he sure was stylish in the hat I made for the occasion. Awww.

Om nom nom!