Friday, December 23, 2022

Baby, It's Cold Outside For Those Of Us With Thin Blood


That little girl barely made it through a reading of "The Chicken of the Family" before she fell asleep last night. She just curled up on her side, closed her eyes, and was oblivious to all almost before I'd finished kissing her good-night. It had been a full evening. While she had her purple cow we all played a rousing game of Battle. Boppy, too. She won. Then the shower, then some playing with Mer's dolls, then the story, then sleep. And she slept pretty well almost until 8:30 at which time it all began again. 
While I was making breakfast I set her up in the kitchen with a box of tiny dollhouse things that Linda Sue sent quite awhile ago and that I'd forgotten to show her. She was so enchanted! She arranged everything to her satisfaction and then spread her arms out and said, "This is happiness!"


 And so it was! 
We had pancakes and bacon and she helped me take things to the table. I asked her how many pancakes she wanted. 
"One," she said. "I'm just a little kid."
So she ate her one pancake and two pieces of bacon and that was that which is so unlike August who can eat four or five pancakes, two pieces of bacon, and ask for more. 

Before she had to go home we played a round of the matching game and then another game of battle. It was a terrific morning. Magnolia is so sweet when she's here. She never stops telling us how much she loves to be here and that makes me feel so good. 

It wasn't long after she left that Vergil brought the boys out to collect their RV which has been parked here for awhile. Vergil's family is coming to visit and the RV will be accommodations for his mom and stepdad. I asked August and Levon if they wanted some cheesy noodles but they said they weren't hungry. Then I mentioned that I had some pancakes and suddenly, they found some room in their tummies. 


Mer's Cafe, open daily, breakfast served all day. 

And then it was time to play a game of Go Fish! These boys don't call it "Gold Fish" the way Maggie does but August did say that instead of calling it a "book" when you get four of a kind, he calls it a "school" because it's fish. 
Makes sense to me. Instead of saying "Go fish," when they don't have the cards asked for they say, "Go clean that dirty old fishbowl!" Where they got that I do not know. 


So that was that part of the day and all grandchildren went away with bye-bye treats. I asked Magnolia if she wanted M&M's or peppermint patties and she said, "M&M's. I don't like peppermint yet. 

Oh, my grandchildren are brilliant and funny, darling, and charming. 
I love them all so. 

We're bundling up over here. I picked some camellias because they'll be brown mush by tomorrow. 


Neither plants nor people here in Florida are not used to such temperatures as we're about to get. My main hope is that my Canary Island date palms die but that my Sabal Palms live. 
We'll just have to wait and see, won't we? 

Happy Friday, y'all. 

Love...Ms. Moon

17 comments:

  1. stay warm. we're at one stinkin degree with 50mph wind gusts so it 'feels like' -30 degrees. fuck it it feels cold and i have hand warmers in my slippers currently. xxalainaxx

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  2. what a divine Magnolia time! And you got to see the boys as well....... lucky you! I feel for you with your impending freeze...... something that you are SO not used to. Whatever plants survive will be good.....and what doesn't, doesn't. Can't do much to change that. Wish we could be selective though, don't you? HA!
    Susan M

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    1. and PS....that Magnolia asleep photo is just something. Those perfect full princess lips! Oh my! She is going to break some hearts in the near future, I presume!
      Susan M

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  3. I woke to -2F. I remember going through a spell of this, but I don't remember when or where. It was after the time we'd moved to the house with the studio. Keeping the studio warm was the biggest problem, but we could get it to about 60 every day. It seemed our time was devoted to fire and food. That cold lasted about six weeks. We did not have such a winter again until this, fifty or sixty years later.

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  4. Wishing you warmth and a good Christmas.

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  5. Over here on the Gulf Coast I’m wearing sweats, wool socks, and a blanket wrapped around me. The heat is on, we’ve eaten chili for supper, and the wind is howling like there should be a snowstorm out there. It’s supposed to get down to 28° tonight so our outside perennials are covered with sheets. Born and raised in Illinois,Mik could handle it. But four years in Florida and I’m freezing!

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  6. Over here on the Gulf Coast I’m wearing sweats, wool socks, and a blanket wrapped around me. The heat is on, we’ve eaten chili for supper, and the wind is howling like there should be a snowstorm out there. It’s supposed to get down to 28° tonight so our outside perennials are covered with sheets. Born and raised in Illinois,Mik could handle it. But four years in Florida and I’m freezing!

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  7. Florida winter, boys bundled up , which I have never seen on your blog, usually they are bare legged barefooted brown as berries and radiating heat. Magnolia June is the sweetest!! Wish i could play with her, she would wear me out I am sure but how delightful that would be! Lucky Mer!

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  8. At 6:09 p.m., it is 10° in Canon City, CO and it looks like that will be the low for tonight!
    Tomorrow we jump up to 51° for the day! Yeah, right ... we'll see if that happens or not!!!

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  9. I'm not looking at the feels like temperature here, too near zero for me!

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  10. 37paddington:
    What wonderful grandchildren you have, every one. Little Magnolia has stolen my heart.

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  11. Good luck with the cold - it's even worse when you're not used to it!

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  12. As long as you don't turn to brown mush all will be good. Glorious summer weather here!

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  13. This is a very sweet read, love Maggie's "this is happiness" and of course there is always room for pancakes, just like there is always room for ice cream. Merry Christmas to all your family.

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  14. Fresca here.
    Magnolia is a unicorn! <3

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  15. It is so cold here but I don't have to go out. I am hosting so they are all coming to my house. We don't get too fancy but we should have lots of laughs and there will be excited grandkids so...
    Hope your celebrations are fun (as they usually are!)! :)

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  16. Took a quick walk around the yard this AM in 25˚. Dismal, depressing, everything mush (or will be) laying on the ground. My poor azaleas look terrible. Most will survive I think coming back from the roots but I guess it remains to be seen. But we have green life in our houses, yes? And grandchild life. Can't ask for more. Well we can but that's just being greedy.

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Tell me, sweeties. Tell me what you think.