Merry Chilly Christmas.

Thursday night into Friday the winds were brutal here. It was taking down tree branches and in some towns entire trees came down overnight. A couple of larger branches fell from our maples and oaks into the driveway. Being outside was unsafe at that time and people were advised to stay put indoors. Friday morning after I got the car back from the repair shop I had to hit the supermarket and run other errands before lunch. I bought a can of car door deicer to prevent the car doors from freezing shut the way they did two weeks ago when we had a freeze following rain with light snow at the end. The deep freeze hit us very quickly in the middle of the afternoon.

For us the coldest temp was 6 degrees late Friday night overnight into Saturday morning. Just like in many other states our gas and electric company is advising everyone to conserve electricity. They also sent out a text message advisory. Just to bring the kitchen garbage bag out to the pail in the driveway before getting ready for bed Friday night, I had to bundle up in layers- wear a hoodie underneath one of those thick fuzzy Uniqlo jackets, both under my coat to keep warm. Yesterday it made it up to 14 degrees. It stayed in the low teens last night and should hit the mid 20s later this afternoon. It's crazy that starting Friday it will be in the 50s and may even hit 60 next Sunday.

Yesterday afternoon I put out a bunch of peanuts on top of the composters and called out to the bluejays who just love the peanuts and not only did the neighborhood flock show up but some cardinals, a tufted titmouse and a red bellied woodpecker showed up as well. We have a wonderful assortment of backyard birds since we have the feeders as well as at least one of our neighbors.

I'm just making a simple dinner this afternoon that will be a variation of Thanksgiving's dinner of turkey breast fillets with stuffing, green bean casserole, sweet potatoes and cranberry sauce. I bought cupcakes and a vanilla panettone cake for dessert and my sister bought pfuffernus Christmas cookies.