A lovely holiday, but very cold. My parents and I were trying to think of an outing or a project we should do, because it was clearly too cold for working outside. Ray slept until after 10! His thought was "let's play cards." He and I walked to the mailbox, Captain and Vanessa walked even farther, even though it was bitter cold and windy. The ground was frozen and it never got above 35. But the sun was strong and it was 75 in the house by mid-afternoon. Of course, we fired up the wood stove morning and evening. I vacuumed and made bread. Ray brought 4 wheelbarrow loads full of wood onto the porch. Vanessa made cookies and she and I undecorated the tree and packed things up. Ray took down the lights, with the new 10-foot stepladder the Captain gave us for Christmas. He tested the bulbs and replaced the ones that were out. I broke one glass ball, handing it down to Vanessa. We packed up the Christmas dishes and glasses. It was a little sad, but good to get it done. The Captain worked some on his column and Ray especially worked on the jigsaw puzzle. The sunlight made it easy to see. We did laundry too, and that was our day.