Cozy up by the fireplace

Well, we've lived in this house for six years now and have always thought of our fireplace as a wall taker upper, for lack of better words. We only light it at Christmas time once or twice and never use it again til the next year. Well, last night that all changed. The fireplace proved its purpose and is welcome to stay. Around bedtime we started noticing it was noticeably colder than it had been earlier. We looked at the thermostat and realized it was 10 degrees colder than what it was set on and going down. We turned it up and out came cold air. That's freakin great. Coldest night of the year so far and we've got cold air not warm. So we brought the kids and their mattresses downstairs and we all cozied up by the fireplace to sleep. By morning it was under 50 degrees in here. To quote Dr. Evil from Austin Powers, "It's freakin freezin Mr. Bigglesworth!" So, now we sit and wait for the furnace guy to come and fix it. Richard stayed home today to be here when they come and tell them what's going on. He believes it is the ignition switch. We have the water running everywhere so the pipes don't freeze and bust and we have the oven on and open so we can get some heat in here. We thought about going to a hotel last night but decided not to because we don't know how much this will cost today and Richard's sister lives here in town so I'm sure we could go there if we needed to. It sucked but was a funny experience. I however won't be saying that it was so funny if we end up needing a new furnace if this problem can't be fixed. That will cost a LOT of $$$.