Home for Christmas

I'll be home for Christmas

You can plan on me

Please have snow and mistletoe

And presents on the tree

– I'll Be Home for Christmas

When they wrote that Christmas carol in the 1940s, members of the armed forces were begging to be home for the holidays. In 2020, it's kind of a punishment of sorts. But we made the most of it.

Santa visited overnight. We all got goodies in our stockings. Carter and Dad both got Seinfeld calendars. Carter also got this one from Heidelberg, Germany, where he lived for a semester way back in 2019. That didn't arrive until Christmas Eve so I'm glad I had a backup. 

I was thrilled to find a golf punch card in my stocking so I can play several times next summer – vaccine and the good lord willing. Definitely something to look forward to. Thanks, Mr. Claus.

We had a pretty low-key day at HOME. Carter left after presents and breakfast so he could be down in Platteville area in the afternoon to celebrate with his girlfriend's family. Both hubby and I got a walk in this afternoon before watching a bit of the Vikings game. We didn't have to suffer too long before heading up to Marshfield to deliver a gift to his aunt, who's been in a care facility and hasn't been able to receive a hug during this whole stinkin' pandemic! So sad. Glad we could spread a little cheer.

After seeing her (masked and 6 feet away, of course), we headed over to Wildwood Park in Marshfield, where they have a winter wonderland light display each year. It's been a long time since we saw it. This time, instead of driving through, we took the walking path. It was like 9 degrees and felt like zero so it was a brisk walk. But oh so beautiful! A few highlights...

Did I mention Wildwood Park is also a zoo? This mountain lion or bobcat or kitty is probably pretty sick of hearing Christmas music by now!

Cold selfie!

A holiday hole-in-one!

Quite the variety of lights!

When our walk concluded with a purple and gold display, I thought for sure it was a sign our Vikings were gaining ground on the Saints while we weren't watching.

Nope. They managed to put the "ugly" in ugly Christmas sweater. Good thing we left the confines of home and skipped most of that. As an added bonus, we saw the Christmas Star. Well, sort of.

Earlier this week, the solar system decided to grace us with a cosmic Christmas miracle that hasn't been witnessed in nearly 800 years. On Monday/Dec. 21 (aka the December solstice), Jupiter and Saturn aligned so closely in the night sky that from our vantage point, looked like they collided and created a radiant point of light often referred to as the "Star of Bethlehem" or the "Christmas Star." It was rainy/snowy and cloudy that night, so we couldn't see it from central Wisconsin.

Now, since it's been a few days, the planets aren't aligned the same. But one of the two definitely was giving off more light than the other. Looked real to us.

Happy birthday, baby Jesus. Thanks for staying in our home for the holidays!