I woke up with a sore throat. It feels like there is a tennis ball wedged into the back of my throat! Time to call the doctor. Well, in a couple hours. I slept pretty well until then, for 6 or 7 hours.

Yesterday morning, the ground was white. Everyone was asleep. I needed eggs to make pancakes (for 7). Used up 9 the day before on scrambled eggs for this crew. No stores open to restock on Christmas day. No Christmas miracle eggs from my beautiful, non-laying chickens. Too early to call the neighbors. E-mail to the rescue. I sent out a query to the neighborhood. The phone rang and O.C. said, "we have some from our daughter you can have, if you want to walk out in the snow." "I'll be there in 30 minutes." I bundled up and as the sky became lighter I realized it was snowing again. Took the dog and a bag and walked through the beautiful big soft flakes, only an inch or two on the ground, so walking was not a problem. Picked up the newspaper and went on down the road to their house. No one out. No sounds (until their neighbor's dog started barking at us). Rabbit tracks across the road in two places, one already getting covered up, one very recent. They invited me to sit with them for a minute, but I wanted to get cooking. Trudged back without my faithful companion. Turned out he was already home.

Made and enjoyed pancakes with maple syrup. My Mom made the bacon. Amelia made hers in a separate pan (no bacon fat). They were good. Everybody else went out to play in the snow at some point. Ray was waiting to hear if services at UUFA were canceled, and they finally called about 9. Adrian especially enjoyed the snow and stayed out the longest. Of course, we had to try to dig up enough warm clothes and boots; we don't use them often enough. I stayed in, having already had my snow time.

We made sure we had all the bread and cookies out of the freezers and thought about what to do first. I took my bath. We cleaned and tidied, put on a few more ornaments. Started the hot mulled wine, got up the punch bowl, got out cups and sliver trays. Cut up canteloupe, got out toothpicks. Amelia ironed the tablecloth, arranged the furniture and made the open-faced sandwiches. Would anyone show up? A few people did not come, but most of our favorites were there. Mike and Todd were a few minutes early and caught me vacuuming. Ran up and changed my dress. Molli was hostess and introduced Adrian to everyone. We had a lovely time; there was more than enough food. We did eat all the mini-quiches and sandwiches, but we have tons of cookies left!

Kevin was there for a long time; he left on the train last night; waiting to see if he will make it to NY (weather). Molli's friend Adam drove from Atlanta and had supper with us before driving back. I hope he didn't have any trouble. It was a pleasure to have him.

After supper and Adam's departure, the four of us watched an episode of Firefly, the one, in fact, where Jane (sp?) receives a hat from his mother--the same hat that Amelia has knitted and given Kevin for Christmas. Then we shared an episode of Doc Martin, a quirky show none of them had seen before that we like...A sort of funny soap opera set in a gorgeous village in Cornwall. We wore our Snuggies.