Merry Christmas!

Christmas was different this year. I love the Christmas Eve service, and the Christmas Day service. Both those were no-gos this year, due to the abundance of SNOW! It's a terrible thing (not in the grand scheme of things) to be marooned 12 miles from your Christmas Eve destination, due to a blizzard whose idea of timing didn't match up with your travel schedule. So, Filius, Filia, and I packed up to go over the river and through the woods a mere 34 hours before scheduled.

The weather then cooperated, dumping all sorts of snow upon us, and even having just enough of a break for Vir to join us Christmas Eve. Hooray! Getting out of the driveway and into town for services wasn't really a good idea, though, so we curled up with White Christmas, Holiday Inn, tea, and hymnbooks. And knitting, of course. We had a lovely family Christmas, and headed home yesterday afternoon. Once Vir managed to get the van out of the driveway (not an easy feat, when the road has been plowed after 8" of fresh snow has fallen), we loaded up the van and had an easy drive home... where he valiantly battled the detrius left behind by the plow in OUR driveway. Three cheers for husbands who a) dig cars out of unplowed parking lots at work so they can get home, b) snowblow driveway so they can park, once they're home, c) battle the elements after dark to join the family for Christmas, d) shovel out the car so family can get home, and e) snowblow driveway so they can park. In a 24-hour period.

It's a lovely snowy world out there. Canis is having a few problems with the depth of the snow, since it's as deep as he is tall. When I first got home and opened the back door to let him out, we discovered instead of jumping down 10" to the ground, he needed to jump UP to the ground. And then sink. We normally have winds with the snow, which makes for nice drifts to walk AROUND, but this snowfall hasn't left any windblown patches for him to walk on. It'll melt ... one of these months. Vir is predicting a white Easter.

I'm predicting a long mud season.

Life is very quiet in our household right after Christmas, save for the occasional sports announcer. Some of us are exhausted from the physical labor involved in getting cars to and from the road, others are busy reading new books.... and some are building Great Things.