Well ... (now Sun, Dec 14) ... maybe you'd be happier & enjoy Dec a bit more if you visited MN. Woke this morning with phone showing current temp of -17F (!!!) ... and I didn't stutter. That was "minus 17 degrees" with Wind Chill around "minus 25".
Earlier this afternoon, I finally cut up a big Halloween pumpkin that's been sitting in my garage, saving all the seeds to toss out for couple squirrels that have a nest in the tree right in front of my patio. I've been tossing out, into the snow, crumbled up pie crust from 2 pumpkin pies from Thanksgiving. They find every crumb, probably a nice addition to whatever they can salvage from nature. I've been wondering if squirrels eat snow for moisture, since all available water is frozen (?).
Last couple years, a Fall tradition is that I bake (roast) chunks of pumpkin instead of squash. Same excellent nutrition & very tasty sprinkled with cinnamon. Current problem is that my fridge freezer & my chest freezer are packed. I've now got 12 nice chunks of pumpkin, so I'll remove couple frozen Pork Roasts & Beef Roasts from the chest freezer to make room. Planning on doing that tomorrow. Meanwhile, needing to immediately get them frozen tonight, I placed them in plastic bags & set them right outside my front door. High today was 4 degrees above zero, way colder than either freezer, so those pumpkin chunks will soon be rock solid, ready to transfer into the chest freezer. Old saying = "Necessity is the mother of invention!".
We Three Kings 
in a Pete SPD 2011 (221). Very nice -- cigar leaf makes the world go round ...
