Merry Christmas One and All!

We have had a wonderful season of advent. Preparation for Christmas has been the priority and we are ready to celebrate. We hope you are too. It will just be the four of us on Christmas day and we are looking forward to a relaxed, low-key day. We have our customary smoked turkey and will enjoy presents, grazing, and each other.

We got our tree last Saturday. The weather was perfect. It was snowing lightly, about 5 degrees (which was warmer than the entire week up to then, so it felt almost balmy). We found a beautiful tree and have thoroughly enjoyed having it up in our living room.

I know the west coast has been pummeled with snow for over a week now but we have had some great snowfalls as well. We have been below 15 degrees since early December and have about 3 feet of snow on the ground. Below are a few pictures of our lights and snow drifts after the first big storm. We also had a night of easterly winds and that pushed the mill steam onto the trees in the area. I don't think the picture does it justice but the next day everything glistened with horefrost.

Diane

Blizzard Day

Such a wonderful day to be indoors. Diane, Rachel and I all worked at church this morning, and are now back home with no reason at all to go outside. This is good, because we are experiencing our first ever blizzard in Minnesota. It’s impossible to tell how much snow has fallen since it’s piling up in drifts up to two feet, and they say the winter storm warning will be in effect until noon tomorrow. There’s plenty of wind out there, and perhaps strangest of all, bitter cold. Our backyard thermometer currently reads 5-below-zero. This is strange because you usually don’t get that much snow when it is so cold. REALLY cold air tends to dry up moisture making precip a little tough to come by. Not this time, however. So I’m just sitting here, watching the Vikings play Arizona, and I thought I’d update this blog.

Last week was Calls to Santa week for the Icebox Radio Theater. Five nights of playing the big man on the radio. This week, our focus turns to Stephen who is undergoing his first finals week at college. Not to mention a round-trip on Thursday to go get him. That’s what we have going this next week. I’m sure someone will update this blog before Christmas, but if it isn’t me, let me say Merry Christmas to everyone, and I’ll be praying for travel mercies all around.