Silent Night

Today's been a weird kind of a day. Oh, it started our normal enough. We got an early wake-up call from Abby, and then she hit the dress-up clothes like a pro. From there, I decided that I'd take some time to do some sewing. Of course Abby wanted to get in on the action (after she'd dumped out nearly every toy she owns) and she sat down to measure out a "a shirt for Papa, to make him feel better."

Yes, everything was chugging along just fine, until around 3 p.m. when we lost power. This is rather unusual for us, and since we weren't mid-storm we knew something was up. Later Jason found out that a tree had fallen down the road, taking out a power line and half of the township's power with it. Word was, we wouldn't be getting power until 9 or 10 p.m.

Luckily, Abby is a go-with-the-flow kind of a gal and so she danced for a bit to the music on my phone, and then sat down to enjoy a popsicle and and some note writing - along with "Brave" on the iPad, of course. Thank heavens for battery power.

Soon enough though, that got boring, so the family sat down for a good ole' fashioned card game - Uno, or as Abby calls it "Oh-No". I was soundly trounced by Jason and Abby - in fact, I don't think I won one game.

Before long we were having a hard time seeing the cards, despite the candles that we had burning. It was bedtime anyway, so with the promise of adventure, and a flashlight we hiked upstairs. Luckily there isn't much about Abby's bedtime ritual that requires electricity, so when she balked at putting away the flashlight I didn't get why. It wasn't until she mentioned telling a story with animals, and then put her hands in front of the flashlight, that I understood. She wanted a shadow-play - what an excellent idea! So, I told a story about Princess Abby and all the animals she loved (many of which looked exactly the same on the bedroom wall). It was worth all the hand cramps I got when she applauded my efforts.

And so, with her DreamLight projecting a starry night, and me reading Cinderella on the iPad, Abby fell asleep. I came downstairs to a nice fire and some quiet conversation with Jason. It was strange to have the house so quiet, but in a very good way - in a way that makes me think we should do this more often (shut stuff off - not lose power, it was getting a bit chilly after all). Finally, as we sat down to our dinner of ham sandwiches and chips the lights popped on.

Tonight I'm thankful for those who worked hard for hours to fix lines so that we could have a warm night, and for some unexpected quiet family time.