Weather service says we got about 42" inches of snow in total from the three storms, which sounds about right. It was fluffy, dry snow so now it is now settling and condensing and freezing hard. They've plowed our street twice (and by plow I mean grader) and it somehow just makes the street narrower afterward. We have to get out and shovel the berm across the driveway right away before the chunks set up. There's no room to park on the street anymore. I ordered a roof rake, hoping that murphy's law will mean we don't get any more big snows for a while. I don't actually want to use it, because then we'll have to shovel what comes off the roof and there's no easy place to put anything right now. But if this is how climate change is going to hit us (deep snow) then it will be good to have the roof rake at the ready.

We didn't lose power, but mail stopped for a few days. It must be a total nightmare for them, backed up right before christmas. We're supposed to have a clear area beside our mailbox so our carrier can pull alongside, but the snowpile from the plowing extends 4' out, and 4-5' deep. Maybe if we had a chainsaw to carve it into chunks we could shift it, but otherwise it isn't going anywhere for a while. Most of the boxes on the street are like that, or worse.

We came home from gaming a couple nights ago to a young bull moose having himself a fine time in our front yard. He was nibbling the lower branches of the crabapple tree and, by the looks of the snow, taking naps. We waited in the car for a few minutes while he decided the neighbor's tree looked tastier and ambled over the front fence and snow berm like it was nothing. It's not good to startle moose. Don't approach them or try to scare them off. You just have to sit tight and wait until they leave.

It's now after Christmas and hoo boy. We were busy. Next year I won't commit to so much, but it snuck up on me and then I couldn't say no to things. We made a very large batch of gingerbread cookies and I decided we would decorate them all. I have very little experience decorating with frosting but how hard could it be, right? Well, our enthusiasm level was a solid 8 and our icing skill was a 1 so the cookies looked like the work of first graders, but they tasted good! We got better on the third round. Next year perhaps I will watch some youtubes or something.

Our niece (D) who has the baby with the very unfortunate name threw a birthday party for her. We knew D was in anchorage but we haven't visited or met the guy she's been living with. We were anticipating that he would be sketchy, but actually their place seemed quite nice and he didn't give off immediate bad vibes or anything. He seemed okay. The baby is cute and happy, D seemed happy and she's starting a new professional job with good benefits - things seem to be going really well for her, which is awesome and a very pleasant surprise. Other niece (C), D's older sister, came by with her husband and two kids. We didn't even know they were living in Anchorage. C seems to be doing well, too. They cracked some jokes about their mom, spouse's sister, who is all on board the conspiracy train. They made us swear that we would never tell her that they had both got the covid vax. So they are making their own choices, which is really good to know. C said she was going going down to visit spouse's parents (and her mother) on Christmas, but she wanted to keep it a short visit. We had been debating what day we were going to go down (I thought the weather might be better on monday). Naturally there is no official plan for Christmas, no organization at all. So we decided to all go down Christmas day so there would be safety in numbers. It was really good to catch up with the nieces.

So there was no official Christmas plan. I have had no texts from MIL, no interest in our Christmas plans, no talking about theirs. Spouse and the oldest BIL had been talking about visiting but there's no word saying, "Come visit!" which just seems completely ding-dong bonkers to me. Spouse made a face like I'd told him to eat his vegetables when I asked about driving down. But we do like BIL and we didn't visit around Thanksgiving because spouse ended up working. So we kinda have to.

I decided I was going to make a big pot of chicken pot pie soup to take down. Last time MIL pulled out weird leftovers from the fridge to feed us. Very awkward - we can't just go get something around the corner - there's no fast food, no sandwich shop, no gas station, nothing until we drive an hour back to Girdwood. I've accepted if we don't bring food ourselves, there won't be food. FIL can't digest beef and doesn't seem to like spices beyond salt and pepper. There's some tooth loss so food needs to be soft. So that means chicken and basic recipes. Who doesn't like the inside of a chicken pot pie? Chicken pot pie is delicious.

So I pack up this chicken pot pie soup and a big plate of gingerbread cookies and we head down. We're running late, of course, because I had to make a couple Christmas cards real quick. We decided to just give cash to the niece & nephew - gotta have a card to put the money in. We made a shopping run to target earlier in the week and I had a pack of cards in my hand, but no, I put them back because I am an ARTISTE, I can't give shitty premade cards like a loser, I have to make my own cards. So I end up tearing around last minute trying to make a card out of a brown paper shopping bag, some spray glue and shiny pigment powder while spouse makes anxious noises (in my defense, the cards came out pretty good).

We think we're going to be the very last ones there, but only BIL has arrived. Apparently, C is having car trouble so they sent SIL's current partner to drive to Anchorage to pick them up. Why there was no shared communication about this so we could have potentially all gone in our car, who knows. This is how it is. C & family are expected shortly.

There is no food. I brought all the food that was served. Ha, I knew it. There are no beverages offered or anything - we fetched our own tap water. Perhaps it was too much to expect dinner when spouse and I visited just ourselves, but I kinda thought on Christmas they would have something for family, even a frozen lasagna or a loaf of homemade bread. Nope! Not a goddamn thing. There's a unopened costco pie on the counter but it isn't offered. We have just the soup and cookies I brought. Allrighty. A person might think, "Wow, they must be really super duper poor," or "Wow, they really don't want visitors," or "Wow, they are just very very rude." I used to think the first but now I am strongly leaning towards the latter two.

So we have a visit. And it goes more or less like all the other visits, where they talk at us a lot and monopolize the conversation but ask us nothing about our lives. No interest in what might be going on with us. FIL keeps side tracking on unrelated old work stories (he's been medically retired for 25 years, but he still thinks his ancient cop experience can benefit his law enforcement kids - "well when I did such-and-such we only had two electric typewriters" shit you not) and holding court like they are supplicants come to beg advice. I've heard most of his stories many times by now, he's definitely got his favorites he likes to trot out and he always tells them like he thinks they are new info for everyone. They are not. Roughly 80% of the conversation completely revolves around MIL & FIL, and the other 20% is talking about cop stuff from BIL's work. BIL is a cool guy, we like him, and he is definitely an improvement on the conversation. Spouse and I are very quiet.

We all notice that it's been hours and C hasn't turned up yet, and eventually we figure out that SIL's partner who was sent to fetch them from Anchorage got distracted(?) by someone stopped on the side of the road and he somehow ended up absorbed in helping that guy for 4 hours and never even made it to Anchorage, so C's visit is completely called off. I've no idea how anyone does this on Christmas, when you're supposed to be the ride for your partner's kid, but okay. Cool cool cool.

BIL says his goodbyes and leaves first. We know there's a very heavy snow coming in that evening so we need to get going, too. I wanted to leave by 4pm to make sure the roads are okay, but we arrived late so we stay an extra hour.

We're all in the kitchen, where the refrigerator has "Let's Go Brandon" and "Trump 2024: make liberals cry again" stickers on it. I'm fussing around with getting our stuff ready to leave. MIL decides to interject something about Michelle Obama into the conversation for absolutely no reason. "They're spending 1.3 million dollars for a trail with her name on it. She doesn't deserve that." (It's actually 4 million, they have the amount wrong.) And FIL says sourly, "She doesn't deserve 1.3 million, she only deserves a park bench," and he laughs like we'd all appreciate this great clever joke he just made.

Holy fucking shit. I have just spent hours sitting and playing the "smile and nod" game with these chucklefucks. I have put a pleasant expression on my face while FIL waxes poetic about how great he was 25+ years ago. I have kept my mouth shut when MIL refers to herself as a first responder (no she's fucking not). I am not a Michelle Obama fangirl but she seems pretty classy and why shouldn't she get $4 million for a trail? First ladies always get stuff like that dedicated to them. 4 million isn't even very much these days. Plus, "she only deserves a park bench"??? Why don't we make the joke even funnier and say if there was a First Lady bus, they should put Melania in the front and make Michelle sit in the back, har-dee-har-dee-har? Why flirt with racism when we can come right out with it? It's a crass, uncalled for thing to say. Disgusting. Disrespectful. Such Christian, much compassion.

I wish I could say I snapped and chewed them out, but I didn't. I think they're partially fishing for drama anyway, so they'll have some reason to cry victim. They want us to start shit. I dropped my friendly expression to cold, turned my back to both of them and got my pot off the stove. Spouse and I were dead silent while FIL laughed. MIL, perhaps thinking we hadn't heard the first time, repeated that she couldn't imagine them spending that much on a trail for Michelle, and FIL said snidely (perhaps jealously, as a self published author) that Michelle made 31 million off her book sales and she could pay for her own trail.

"DO YOU HAVE A CONTAINER FOR THIS SOUP?" I asked MIL, 'cause there is no way I am continuing on this topic.

She gets containers for the soup leftovers and we finish packing to go. FIL goes on chatty tangents but spouse and I are very quiet. MIL finally says, "We know you don't agree with us politically but we'd like to have a conversation and understand where you are coming from." She makes some vague comments about how the news is so bad and untrustworthy. There's no way spouse and I are going to touch any political talk when the snow is coming down and we need to get going. We make noise about the roads getting bad and say goodbyes. (The roads were indeed very bad.)

People like spouse's parents are the reason etiquette was invented - so the crass could be identified and snubbed before they barge into the good parties, eat all the horderves and take a shit on the conversation.

I gave it the ol' college try. I thought maybe I had come off as unfriendly and the issue was on my end. I texted her with nice conversation and funny stuff (that she didn't think was funny), I sent homemade treats, I gave her the brand new food mill. Apparently she hasn't even started taking the allithiamine I sent - "lead a horse to water" and all. There was no obligation for her to take them, but I guess it just makes it obvious where her priorities are. So that's that.

Oh, but that didn't stop her from describing the large tattoo she wants me to give her in the last minutes we were there. I'm sure she wants me to haul my kit down there, set up in her house where her herd of pets do their business on the floor, and give her a complicated full color tattoo. And pay me nothing, and probably serve me leftovers as a tip. Yeah, sure. Gosh, she likes my art!! Aren't I flattered. Generous patron of the fine arts she is.

There's no real chance I will ever work on her. If she wants to drive to Anchorage and come into wherever shop I end up in and pay me something (assuming my future mentor even agrees) then there's a possibility. I'm guessing she won't.

So spouse and I cackled about the visit the whole long way home, but it was the uncomfortable "laugh to keep from crying" giggles. "Why don't you ever want to come visit us?" is spouse's favorite line, delivered in a clueless sad whine. "DO YOU HAVE A CONTAINER FOR THIS SOUP??" I yelled back angrily. And then we laughed and laughed.

It has warmed up to about freezing after being at subzero temps for a while, so I am trying to work on projects in the garage and get things past the stall point of routing and sanding. I probably should not have worked on this entry because I only have two hours of daylight left. Ah well.

We're on the downhill side of the winter solstice. More daylight is coming.