Christmas in Indy, Day 2: Cold and Snow, Painting and Cookies

At the start of the day, Kaya came into our room to let us know she’s ready for pets. We met Kaya briefly last year, so I didn’t really get to know her that well. But she’s an absolutely sweetheart, and so full of love and affection… it’s hard not to fall for her.

Favorite thing: you’ll just be standing talking to someone, and Kaya will come up to you and just start leaning against you. And will then continue to lean a bit more. And a bit more.

I was a little slow in getting my work clothes on. And then I looked up, and saw the two jobsite foremen looking at me with disapproval.

The front yard, with a lot less snow than we feared. A big issue in Indy: the quick change in temperature. Yesterday had a lot of rain, which then quickly froze as the temperature dropped in a very short amount of time. We were all very cautious yesterday and today, and tried to avoid unnecessary travel.

A view of the lower driveway, near the garage and basketball hoop.

So I don’t forget: yesterday, I played a round of hose with Jahnu, despite the really cold temps. For some reason, I’ve had the itch to shoot some baskets (it’s been around for a few weeks now)… and Jahnu indulged me.

The cold was rough, but we played through it. And had a fun time. This basketball hoop was recently installed (the old one from my childhood is visible to the side). But the act of shooting baskets in the driveway here was yet another moment of nostalgia for me.

Even though I never got much into sports, I still like shooting baskets. You can take the boy out of Indiana…

A great set of LED lights that can be put into a standard lamp/socket. This thing was perfect for our needs in the hallway (where there’s not a lot of powerful light)… and Liz and I made a mental note to buy one or two of these guys. So useful!

Liz, painting the trim. Again, a lot of prep happening before the actual painting of the hallway.

With the trim cleaned up and in some cases patched, we first wanted to paint all the trim around the doors. We also had some small areas to fix, and were able to use Shane’s compressor and brad nailer.

I felt fancy, being able to use the thing. But this was a reminder to me that other people also have compressors and brad nailers, and these aren’t super special tools. Still, it felt nice to be able to so easily fix a few pieces of loose trim.

We were thinking about using an upcoming weekend day to just relax and make cookies. But looking at our remaining time and our progress in the hallway, we realized we had more work and less free time than we anticipated.

So tonight, we made cookies. Or rather – everyone else made cookies, and I watched them. Liz brought a few recipes and was working on Oatmeal cookies and Sugar cookies.

Jasmine and Kenny found a Vegan recipe for peanut butter cookies on Pinterest, and made a batch. I was a bit skeptical, but the were actually quite moist and quite delicious!

I can’t tell if Jasmine was surprised or annoyed here, when I took this picture. I’m going to guess both.

Related:
Christmas in Indy, Day 1: Painting Prep and Ransom Note