silent census Sunday

There is no church today.

There are no stores or businesses open today.

There are no cars driving around.

Just an occasional helicopter.

The only people on the streets are teenagers.

They are the only ones allowed to be out.

Seems a little backwards in many ways, yes?

Pretty sure that wouldn't be allowed in North America.

It is crazy quiet -

in what is not normally a quiet city.

There are no festivities of any sort - unless they are in your own home with only the people who live there.

It is census day.

It is kind of odd and eery but strangely enjoyable.

Everyone is bound to their house from 7:00 a.m. - 5:00 p.m.

And they have trained high school students to take the census.

I'm sure they are thrilled to pieces.

For one activity this morning, Lucy requested to watch and movie and snuggle with me.

Great, I thought.

I love watching movies and I love snuggling with my kids.

But then....

she picked the movie.

She picked my all time most hated movie:

SNOW WHITE

I hate Snow White.

Could they possibly have chosen a more annoying voice for the main character?

Simulated nails on the chalkboard would be more enjoyable.

And I'm no feminist, but seriously....

Her munching the apple and falling silent is by far the best part of the movie.

The only part I like is when the animals help her make the gooseberry pies.

I'd like to have cute little birdies crimp my pie crusts for me.

Although I think I might make them wash their little feet first.

(Yes, we have state of the art technology.... it is a VHS, too)

Since we are stuck in the house, we are going to have a lovely lunch with our upstairs neighbors.

Then I am going to pretend that we are at one of my favorite places, Apple Hill.

Usually sometime this weekend, after Thanksgiving, we go to Apple Hill.

I love it there.

The smells, the weather, the atmosphere and the

caramel apples

apple fritters

apple cider

carmellos

apple pie

(the pie is quite good, even though it was not made by a member of my ancestry)

Since we can't be there, I'm going to make my own caramel apples and my own apple fritters.

If they turn out, you may hear more on that later.

The boys/men just came.

We had students from the military school.

In their fancy boots and everything.

Now for the census....

The questions were all about who we are - ages, languages, nationality; what we have - type of house, what it is made of, how many light fixtures we have, if we have internet (yes, obviously), cable (no.... but they didn't ask about slingbox!), and all that type of stuff.

Surprisingly, it is 11:00 and we are already done.

Took about 1/2 an hour or so and we even understood everything.

Let me rephrase:

Eric understood everything almost immediately.

It took me slightly longer.

I won't tell you how slightly.

And the proof that we are finished?

The sticker on the door:

Now for lunch with our neighbors.

It is a good day.