The Winter Solstice

Well, the "predicted" Mayan Apocalypse didn't occur - either at midnight, or at dawn. A local Mayan authority, who teaches at the University of Colorado, says that whoever made the prediction didn't realize that yesterday marked the end of a "Mayan Millennium" - not the end of the world.
  About half the grass in the back yard is still covered with snow from Wednesday's snow. We're expecting "warm" temperatures (in the upper 40s) through Monday, so most of the snow should melt; and the weather folks say we'll get snow Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. In the 140 year history of weather records here, we have an actual snow fall happen 13% of the time on Christmas Day... And the Winter Solstice happened between 4 and 5 this morning! It's now officially Winter.
  I placed pecans, peanuts, and shredded wheat out for the critters this morning... The squirrels are pigging out, as are the ravens. Nedi sits just behind the door curtain, and acts like he's going to charge the eating creatures, but he doesn't, and the critters finally relax and stuff their faces. Lovey has been out several times, and is currently sitting on the top of the cat tree, surveying her domain. She is still licking her lips in the odd way that she started when her teeth were removed in October. It takes two people to open her mouth, so I guess we'll have to make a quick trip to the vet's and make certain that she's not got any more problems. I'm hoping that this odd lick has just become a habit, and doesn't mean she's still got a dangling stitch left behind....
  Original plans were that Kathy and Jim would take me to the 2 p.m. show of the Rocky Mountain Revels (An Appalachian Christmas) tomorrow. Jim informed me yesterday that his Climbing Club has designated tomorrow afternoon as their annual "ski and climb to the meeting cabin" day, so he wanted to know if I minded going to the 7 p.m. show. I told him that it was fine with me - but then he said Kathy had asked Erin, and the time we went would depend upon Erin's response. So I have no idea, as yet, about when I need to show up at the theater: 1:30 or 6:30 - and that's a pretty big gap. Kathy and Jim are also supposed to designate the day and time we go to see The Hobbit - I've been ready since the 14th, when the movie opened, but no one has said a word yet.... As far as I know, Sarah and her Michael will be in Santa Fe with Dr. Fleetwood for Christmas; Mike is camping out in Hawaii; I might just spend Christmas Day at home with the kits - other than feeding and visiting Sasquatch and Tugger. At the moment, the only plan is that there is no plan.
  I hope your weekend before Christmas is a smoothly flowing river for you: that you get everything you need to do done, and that it happens without undue stress for you and yours.