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For the second day in a row, our office is about 50 degrees. Granted, it’s about 7 degrees outside, so it’s definitely a cold day, but it sure would be nice if the heat was working…

One doughnut to rule them all, one doughnut to find them…

… one doughnut to bring them all, and in the darkness bind them.

So we bought a new refrigerator the other day. We were at Lowe’s and noticed they had a killer sale on all of their major appliances. By “killer” I mean most of them were about half-price. Our fridge is at least sixteen years old, and although it’s been running like a champ, you never know when it’ll give up the ghost. And, as Kurt pointed out to me, when your fridge dies, you run to the store and take whatever they can deliver in the next few days.

This one is black, which means for the first time in our twenty years of marriage we’ll have a fridge that actually matches our other appliances. It has side-by-side doors and is a little wider and deeper than the old one, so we have more room for food. Interestingly enough, two kids have moved away and another will be leaving soon, so we actually have less food these days. The freezer is a huge drawer in the bottom (bottom freezers are so much better).

So all’s well, and we expect to be happy with this guy for at least sixteen more years. But now we have a problem: what do we do with an old, but perfectly working, refrigerator?

We just finished stuffing everything into a big box to ship off to Alex, who’s down in Lima Peru for the second Christmas in a row.

We wrapped a bunch of little gifts for him and his companion, added all kinds of food that he can’t buy in Peru, and jammed in a variety of Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups (I even found one of those huge packages which has two half-pound cups.) Unless he gives some away to his companion and the kids and families he visits, he’ll end up with a sugar rush through mid-April.

It’s kind of a bummer not to be with him for Christmas (again), but we’ll have a chance to talk with him for the third time since he left. I know the stuff he’s doing is important and worth it. Merry Christmas, Elder Schroeder.

It’s from concentrate. Or not.

Part of a conversation with Kyra today:

Thank you, mom, for raising me to talk proper English, so I can laugh at things like this.

I have our tickets…

I’m cranking away on my seminary lesson, and decided it was time for a snack. We don’t usually have “snack foods” around the house, so sometimes a bit of creativity is required. Today I ended up with popcorn, butterscotch chips, and a glass of orange juice.

Surely that’ll get my brain shifted into high gear!

Yesterday we had a photoshoot (long story, but it’ll all become clear when our Christmas card comes out) and Zack was really hamming it up. He used a hair dryer to get a little more “body” in his hair, and then gave me a few poses. He was absolutely hilarious because he was so serious.

This is one of them, which seems to capture his thoughtful side.