It was an instant decision, to stay home.

1. Jay is fighting a virus, but her fever is down and she feels better.
2. The power goes off before dawn and comes back just in time for breakfast.
3. Em is also home since the local school is closed due to weather conditions anyway. That’s a good thing because I cannot imagine how she would have handled it at school, in the presence of her peers, when she learnt about her strangely and unbelievably low score at a competition she had entered with such great expectations and for which she had worked for with much energy and love for many months… After a long talk we go for a walk down the road and back and observe the wild winter scenery. Em tries sliding down hill in her snow pants, laughing out loud.