So This Is Christmas

Fourteen years in the USA and I'm still not used to cold at this time of year.  So if I'm going to feel misplaced, I might as well spend a few days with friends in their north Georgia cabin.  And anyhow, it's always interesting to sit around a bonfire and witness a true pyromaniac at work.

Earlier in the evening Pyro's wife was trying to get their two year old girl to have "two more bites" of dinner.  Nothing was working, not the promise of chips, cookies, or even Grandpa's soda was working.  Not until Grandma decided she was going outside to see the campfire Daddy had built.  Open Sesame!  Never has a two year old scarfed down two mouthfuls of green bean casserole more quickly.  No sooner than she'd finished and run off to put on her boots, when Daddy came in from the cold and announced he was done with the campfire.

Oops.  And being a safety-conscious pyromaniac, he'd doused the fire with enough water to make a fireman proud.  What's a mum to do?  If you're going to bribe your kid you have to come up with the promised goods.  PyroDad was running through the options (and opportunities) for making a roaring bonfire at a moment's notice.  Grandma to the rescue yet again (she's good, folks) with a starter log, or as she calls it: a cheater log.  Pyro, back in the zone again, quickly set about establishing a fire worthy of heating a iron bar to a glow-in-the-dark Yuletide red.  Which of course led to joyfully discovering how easily and quickly a red hot poker will burn through solid objects.