We had a couple late Christmas celebrations this week, even after taking down our decorations outside. On Saturday night last week, we opened a box of presents from the kids’ Great Aunt Sandra. There were a few seemingly antique toys wrapped inside, such as a doll with a poodle skirt and some kind of top with a tiny model train that made noises when it spun. There was also a copy of The Little Engine That Could and a couple of “snow baby” figurines that Vivian remembered fondly growing up.

We also had a bit of a late Christmas for our cat Zoey. She was seriously sick for the past week with a UTI, which caused her to stop eating and required a trip to the animal hospital, a week of antibiotics, and lots of prayers. She’s been slowly doing better, however, which was a relief, so on Friday, we let her open her “stocking,” which ad some new cat toys and some catnip for her.

Before the snow hit, however, I dropped by Barley’s Bar in Council Bluffs to see Asa Hutchinson — likely the last Presidential candidate I’ll rub elbows with this season. Around four other people and a reporter from the Omaha World-Herald braves the weather to join us, making for a fairly cozy round table with the former Arkansas governor. We got plenty of time to ask questions, of course, so I asked Hutchinson whether he thought Ford made a mistake in pardoning Nixon, as he thinks it’s unseemly for candidates on the campaign trail today to promise to pardon Trump. I wrote about that exchange in my political blog.

In any case, it was a friendly visit, and of course I got a selfie with the governor before he left, a well as a helping of some of the leftover food his campaign had paid for.

In weather-related news, we got our first legitimate snowfall of the season this week, with four to eight inches of wet stuff dropping by Monday night and then again on Friday. It brought an end to my lunchtime bike rides, but I got a lot more exercise shoveling my driveway and my in-law’s over the course of a couple days. Vivian also kept us warm with a batch or two of Ramen.

The weather also shut down school for a couple days, giving Hannah a late start back to Abounding Life and even cancelling their “Family Night” performance on Friday, which was very sad.

The weather didn’t, however, stop a couple Presidential candidates coming to town. Vivek Ramaswamy held yet another event, this time a town hall at The Acres in the rural outskirts of Council Bluffs. The streets were slick and snow-covered, but Vivek and I both managed to arrive right at six, when the event officially started. It wasn’t a long campaign stop either, since Vivek had an event up in Des Moines happening shortly thereafter, but he gave his stump speech and took a few questions from the audience before making his way out again. I had the chance to tell him that 90% of success is just showing up, and that Nikki Haley had cancelled her own event just a few miles away.

(Of course, I also got one last selfie with Vivek before he left as well.)

Then the next morning, I pulled Hannah out of bed to head downtown for one last Presidential campaign stop of the year. This time, it was Ron DeSantis, who was making a swing through Iowa along with his wife Casey, Gov. Kim Reynolds, Congressman Chip Roy, and Bob Vander Plaats from The Family Leader. Hannah and I arrived early enough to get a literal front-row seat at the event, which was nice. It had a bit of a late start, but that gave us the chance to chat with my friend Stephen and then meet Chip Roy, who was mingling with the crowd. The speakers began taking the stage at ten o’clock, starting with Casey, then Roy, Vander Plaats, Reynolds, and then DeSantis. He gave a half-hour stump speech before taking some questions from the crowd. He took questions from my friends Stephen and Brandi as well as a lady named April, who traveled all the way form Washington State to see DeSantis. Hannah was a bit bored, but I think she understood how rare an opportunity it was to see a Presidential campaign this up close and personal.

We stayed a bit afterward, of course, to get a quick selfie with DeSantis and then chat a bit with Casey DeSantis. I introduced her to Hannah and talked with her a bit about our kids, particularly us homeschooling Hannah and Aaron and trying to get them exposed to a bit of the political world right next door (and get plenty of new photos for my selfie wall).

We’re in the middle of a deep freeze now as we enter the Iowa Caucuses. We’re also planning a trip to the Zoo in the midst of it — we’ll have an update on that later (assuming we’re not all popsicles afterward).