I hope that everyone had a wonderful Christmas.  Here, the puppy arrived a week before Christmas, along with my father and step-mother who drove her here from Florida.  They stayed a few days, and then two of my three children and one of my granddaughters arrived from Florida and Montana.  Holiday activities filled our days, from game playing around the table, to Christmas shopping.  We cooked amazing meals and baked delectible cookies.  My mother arrived, then my step-son, then my step-son's girlfriend.  We Skyped with my daughter and granddaughter who stayed behind in Florida this year.  The new puppy joined the joyous melee, playing keep away with anything she believed we did not want her to have.  Happy liveliness.

The Season Begins

Actually, by now this is old news.  The snow of which I speak is more than a week old now.  Another storm has swept the country from Arizona to Maine with deeper snow, then rain, and now a deep freeze to put the hard edge of ice on all the beautiful, gentle, white fluff.   Here's the "before"...

When the snow is light (as in these photos of last week), the animals are more easily able to dig around in it to find their food.  Now, the hard crusty ice pack is is not a thing to rejoice in, not a minor barrier to life.  I've found deer tracks near the house, and patches of digging where they have been trying to find acorns.  Sigh.  I wish it wouldn't start the season like this, 'cause that ice layer will be there now until May. 

Yet, my new puppy should be here by tomorrow, and the children and grandchildren who are able to come home this year will follow in a couple of days, and I was just in Florida to see the ones who can not.  The world is singing for me, despite the ice.