Christmas Snowstorm

It's been many, many years since the Midwest has had a major snowstorm on Christmas Day. There are a couple of aspects of this one that are headed for the record books .... 18 inches and counting, and the duration of the storm: 3 days, if you count the 5 inches we received Thursday night. We had a little reprieve yesterday for a few hours and then it wound up again, dumped another foot of snow and brought a lot of wind with it. Plans were changed and, unless you got out of town Thursday night or early Friday, you ended up staying home. The girls and I slept late this morning (soooo nice .... had the radio on, listening to Christmas music in the background), and I spent the day finishing up my cards and blowing snow. My snowblower isn't very big so you have to stay ahead of the drifts. I'm usually at work, so don't have the opportunity to do that, but this time I did and I'm so proud of myself. I was dug out before any of my neighbors (for once!) and even was able to help with my neighbor's driveway, since he DID have to work ... a 12 hour shift, no less.

The girls think the snow is just great, and they had a lot of fun playing with Sadie, their pal next door. Running through deep, heavy snow with legs that are 5 inches long is a lot of work, and they are getting older .... so they came inside and went right to sleep. Merry Christmas girls!

Reluctant Reindeer Christmas Photo Shoot

It is nearly the middle of December, and I have never gotten such a late start on my Christmas cards. Sending and receiving Christmas letters from family and friends is one of the best parts of the holiday season for me. Since I grew up in five different states, and have lived several different places as an adult, I have quite a few friends who I hear from only at Christmas. Facebook has been a new point of connection with old friends, but I still enjoy reading the comprehesive Christmas letters .... and I'm dismayed that the trend is moving to shorter and shorter letters; sometimes only a paragraph! No! I protest!

This is the way they're supposed to be worn, aren't they?                                          

Usually my cards are made by the end of October, my letter is written the day after Thanksgiving and they are in the mail the first week of December. Not this year! I had company over Thanksgiving (great fun!) and December has been consumed with baking for three different cookie exchanges, hosting a graduation open house for a friend and a year end fundraiser at work. Suddenly I find it is mid-December, and I'm almost in a panic! The letter is yet unwritten, and I don't have a single card made! I don't even have my tree up yet. Last night I decided that 'this was it' .... do or die ... so we went over to my friend Sandy's to have our picture taken in front of their tree! And my usually very cooperative and photogenic girls decided to be stinkers. Maybe they were picking up on my sense of urgency .... who knows? Whatever the case, we could not get them to look at the camera ... let alone 'smile'. And, just as I knew she would, Dee Dee finally 'had enough' and started to snarl at Princess .... at which time Princess closed her eyes and arched her neck as faaarrrr away from Dee Dee as she could ... and the photo shoot was over! But, just like with kids, sometimes the funny, candid shots tell the best story - and I think that will be the case with us this year!