White Christmas

We woke Christmas morning to a white Christmas with snow gently falling!


The day started off quiet, though there was a bit of bustling around in the kitchen preparing our Christmas brunch.  There were bird feeders to fill with Christmas treats.  But best of all was the quiet that comes with new snowfall.  For me it was a beautiful gift!


Thomas waited patiently by the door all morning.  He seemed to know that all the kids were on their way!

And eventually, they all did arrive, safe and sound despite the snow and slick roads!  How wonderful to have them all around the table together!


While we opened gifts, Conrad sat next to the tree watching the festivities.  It was a lovely day.  Then, mid-afternoon, my son Stephen became suddenly overwhelmingly ill.  His wife and I spent the remainder of Christmas with him at the ED, where he was diagnosed with complex migraines.  Who knew that they could produce stroke like symptoms.  We are so very grateful that it wasn't a stroke or something worse and that he is on the mend.


During the days following Christmas, the house was very quiet.  I put together my new easel and pulled out an old unfinished painting to work on.  It is still a work in progress, but coming along.  I have hopes of completing a series of seasonal barn paintings based on photos from my time in Iowa.  This one is Summer.


Since Christmas, the weather has been quite frosty.  Where the storm windows are missing, the old single panes are covered in frost each morning.


I love the iridescent patterns that play across them, different each day.


Outside, the Christmas snow remains, blanketing the earth, like a fresh page, waiting for the day's story to be written across it and edited anew.

So too, the story of 2012 is nearly complete ~ and what a tale it has been this year.  There is much to think on and look back over,  but as my Mom would have said, "One MUST keep moving forward."  Soon the blank pages of 2013 will start to fill with new tales ~ and just as it was with 2012, it will be quite the tale!

Each year is such a gift and isn't it wonderful that we get this amazing opportunity to start afresh with each new year, each birthday, each anniversary and all the other markers that fill our lives.  Like the old saying from the late 60's/early 70's;

Today is the First Day of the rest of your Life! 

Make the most of it!  Write a beautiful story on today's page!