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It seems longer than a week since New Year’s Eve. Ours was celebrated with the Wylie women and Dave at their estate in Garland. If there are two bigger sticks-in-the-mud when it comes to a New Year’s Eve celebration than Joyce and me, I’d hate to be around them. It has been over a decade since we tried to greet the new year, longer since we even wanted to. The only one still up at midnight was Dave, and that’s normal for him. We enjoyed the evening anyway.
Before driving to Garland on Christmas Day, we celebrated Christmas Eve with three generations of Zbindens. After a tasty dinner of finger foods there was an exchange of presents. The boots Joyce ordered for Abigail hadn’t come in but while we were opening presents UPS finally delivered them. Abigail was delighted. In fact we all were. The neighbors gave me a wine rack which I needed since the 25 bottle rack I had didn’t have room for the 2012 vintage I bottled a couple of months ago. The new rack holds 44 bottles so between the two I should be able to store between two and three years’ vintage with a few of Chris’s personal stash mixed in.
Speaking of SA wine, we broke out a 2011 bottle on Christmas Eve and everyone enjoyed it. It’s two years old now and has really rounded into a nice vintage. I have 14 bottles left so if I open a bottle a month, there will still be a couple that reach at least three years old and we’ll see if another year makes a noticeable difference. That will also allow the 2012 vintage to reach two years old before we open any of it. Since the 2013 got hailed out and assuming there is a 2014 vintage, we should be able to have some nice mature wine to enhance our festivities in perpetuity.
We’re freezing our ankles off along with much of the rest of the country. Saturday night it snowed some and then it turned around and did it again Sunday night. The first snow barely covered the ground and in spite of the cold had nearly melted away by Sunday afternoon. The Sunday night snow was a surprise to the forecasters and was a repeat of the Saturday night snow. Joyce was about to go walking with her friends Monday morning when one texted her that the roads were too slick to venture out on safely. It was also seven degrees so Joyce wasn’t the least bit disappointed to stay home and keep warm.
Abigail had another volleyball tournament Saturday. That kept her occupied from about 7:45 until after 4 o’clock. I took the morning shift, then went home for lunch. Chris left Rebecca with me and spent the afternoon at the tournament. Kari spent the whole time there. Joyce spent Friday and Saturday helping Janice finish up at their mom’s house. They wanted to get everything out that anybody wanted and they seemed to have finished that up. If she hasn’t already, Janice will soon turn over the keys to the man who has agreed to buy the house. He’s going to fix it up and sell it. I feel sure both Janice and Joyce will be glad to have that behind them in spite of the tugs at their heart strings in seeing the old home place sold.