Merry Christmas!

Jerry popped off our 7' long icicles today!





This is the view of the snow right out the kitchen window. It really is this high!





What a great day! Jerry and I played Santa this morning. He bought me a Kindle and I bought him all kinds of cold weather gear: Yak Trakkers, fleece coat, cap, 3 pairs of gloves, and walking sticks. But the sticks are not quite the right kind. I didn't watch and bought ones for mountain terrain instead of street hiking. So that will need fixing. The electricity went off for a nano-second, so I bolted for the shower and quickly made a pretty yummy breakfast.

Surprise! It snowed again. Another 10" just for good measure. Today's snow was wetter. So out Jerry went with his new gear to shovel the driveway, again. Boyds were shoveling and scrapping theirs. Gummels were "John Deere-ing" theirs. It was cute watching all four guys converging in the street to visit. Boyds five grandchildren were sledding in the street, with a dad pulling a chain of them up the street. What great memories they were making!

I have included more comparison photos of our deck, bench and my poor little Japanese maple in its pot. Sniff! It has already lost a branch even though Jerry has valiantly brushed it off often.

Suddenly the electricity went off. About 2 hours. We built a fire, heated water for hot cider and hot cocoa. The snow on the deck is so tall that we could throw a tablecloth over it and use it for serving dinner. John and his son came down with their annual pecan pie offering. I was finished my makeup in the bathroom with a window for light, walked down the hall, and the phone rang. Electricity back on! It was Mother. We were to go to town and spend the day with her, but that didn't happen! After the phone call I opened the front door to all the young moms walking up the road. "Merry Christmas!" I said to them. "The electricity is back on!" And they enthusiastically said "Merry Christmas!!!!" back. We women like PUD. :-)

We decided to take advantage of the hot fireplace insert and made wieners and baked beans with onions for dinner in a dutch oven. It was great and we got some extra iron for the day.

Jerry is off on an errand of mercy. Olsons called. Their 3-year-old granddaughter is sick, and they wondered if we had children's Tylenol. We had some old grape chewable that expired in 2001! So we called the younger Boyds who had two versions. So Jerry is skidding to the Boyds to pick it up and then skidding to the Olsons to deliver it, and hopefully make it back home so that we can continue with our Harry Potter festival. Ah! There he is!!!

Oh dear...He drove to the Laulanien/Crestmont intersection. He had to get out and walk down the lovely road toward Olsons. But he delivered the Tylenol and slide back to the car and home. He is such a hero!

Same bench, but look at the difference in Christmas 2008 and Christmas 2007!!!



My little Japanese Maple a few days ago and today...buried!