Cozy Day, Cozy Night

In Texas. In the winter, in Texas, if you sit around waiting for an idyllic cozy night, one that you read about, one based on cozy nights in places like Vermont or Connecticut... You will never have a cozy night. You make do.

August and I woke up to a dark morning this week. So dark we had to turn on the lights to play and cut out paper dolls. It rained all day and the floor was chilly. Our first cozy day, a day of soups and toasty drinks, sweaters and baking.

We played paper dolls and left incredible messes all over the house. We lounged in the living room the entire dreary day. We watched movies and musicals.  I introduced her to The Sonny and Cher show. I tried to bundle her up in comfortable clothing but she spent the day in her panties and layers of baby blankets. 

I didn't really have the desire to bake much. I wanted the oven on, I wanted cozy aromas. I created a very sorry, very sad berry pie. It was made using two frozen pie crusts and frozen berries with leftover organic, all natural cherry juice left from the organic and all natural maraschino cherries I bought for a fruitcake last month. It smelled great while baking and we gobbled up the warm cherry flavored pastry for dessert in the evening. It was flaky and light and really quite a surprise. However, it began to look weary and stale and all things ugly once it cooled. We had eaten more than enough so I tossed out the little that was left and felt slightly guilty. 

A chilly rainy night it was with a downpour around 6pm. I washed away the guilt with fresh wassail made from juicing a pineapple and an apple then squeezing juice from three types of oranges...some zest and spices and again the house smelled welcoming and wintry.  Should we watch a movie, cuddle under covers and read or play a game? Instead we sat at the couch and turned on the radio. 

August and I sipped on our sweet drinks and I asked her questions like: What was your favorite thing to do, so far, this week? She replied it was Monday's trip to the skating rink, her first. She was the youngest child there and had no helmet or padding of any kind. I only tip toed behind her surprised by my own reflexes. After an hour, she took a break and snacked on the bench while I skated for the first time in...years I guess. At least two. There was  that rink in Oklahoma when she was a year old. The warmest feeling all week has been the way she looked at me and smiled and waved as I skated by her. 

Our cozy day and night tapered off with storytime and Christmas songs. I dozed off and then got up to fetch a sweet music box, wooden you snake and some magnetic letters I had stashed high on the closet shelf. I put them around and in August's cowboy boots that were on the table near the nativity scene. Her Epiphany gifts. I checked the forecast for the day ahead and it had a big sunshine. Big sunshines for a long time. Our cozy day was well spent and I wish for more cold and dark, maybe icy days, so we can do this again.