Every family has their own special Christmas traditions. Something that they do every year without fail, or it could be a way of decorating their tree. My Mom starting crocheting snowflake ornaments for us many years ago, so they’ve always held a special place on our tree. A few years back I “ordered” as many as she could make because I knew the day would come when she would not be able to make them anymore. I now have a plentiful stash.

This year we decided that although we have wonderful ornaments collected from Germany when we lived there, this year we would dedicate our tree to snowflakes. Some of you noticed them in my earlier post.

Okay, okay. You caught me. I did sneak something else besides snowflakes on the tree. I found these old-fashioned pipe cleaner Santas in a shop in Warwick and they just seemed perfect.

This year joining our tree is my Mom’s tree-topper angel. She’s been around for a very long time. Don’t you just love her “angel hair” skirt? Or perhaps it’s a cloud of angel hair that she is sitting on. Which do you think it is?

Also tradition are cookie press butter cookies. Although I deviate a bit from how Mom always decorated them, the designs are the same. A few years back I came across the same exact cookie press and templates that my Mom had in a local flea market. I snapped it up for a mere $9.00. I was thrilled! I had been using a different cookie press but the templates were somewhat different than Mom’s original ones.

Here are the cookies “hot off the press” so to speak and ready for decorating.

And here they are after baking. YummY! Freshly baked this afternoon!

I’m really proud of my sister because she made them today as well. Except for her it’s the first time she’s ever made them, as Mom always sent her cookies at Christmas. Ah, Mom. My sister called not long ago and the whole experience was going well.  She’s using Mom’s original cookie press that is a bit worse for the wear. It even has a band-aid on the spot where there is a hole in the casing so the dough won’t squirt out.

Traditions and treasures. Well loved and carried on. I know Mom would be happy.

Oh. Did I forget to mention that Johnny died while helping with Fall clean-up? Yes, sad but true. He was never quite the same after his spa appointment and went rapidly downhill, coughing and sputtering to the bitter end. He was a good guy and we spent a lot of time together. We were together through thick and thin [grass] and lots of bumps and humps.

There was nothing else we could do for him. He needed to go to the place where all good Deere go once their useful life is over. We waved good-bye as we watched him ride off into the sunset on a flatbed trailer. sniff, sniff ...

Enter John Jr. Even though John Jr. is much larger than Johnny it just doesn’t seem right to call him “John Sr.” He has only just arrived and we’ve already put him to work twice. He came with an exciting attachment: a snowblower! Rick decided that I should get my first lesson on Sunday. Here we are getting acquainted.

Isn’t he sweet? Only problem is, things aren’t where or what they used to be. (No, I’m talking about Johnny here, not myself although it’s true for me too!) What used to be the brake is now reverse, which causes a few problems as you can imagine. Just when you thought you were stopping you’re flying backwards [whaaaaaaat!]. Now instead of changing gears for different speeds you just use the gas pedal. vvvvvvrrrrrooooooommmmmmm! To stop it’s simple; just lift your foot off the gas. If you can remember that’s what you’re supposed to do, that is, otherwise you continue to go forward and potentially wreck an expensive piece of equipment.

Then there is the other pedal which lifts and locks the snowblower attachment and the fiddly bit that changes the direction of the snow chute. Okay, ready for your lesson?—all together now!

Disengage lock
Drop snowblower
Adjust direction
Press the gas pedal while lifting the switch to engage the snowblower
Watch where you are driving
Remember: the “old” brake is now reverse
Okay, now to back up.
Disengage the snowblower
Either lift and lock snowblower; or depress and hold down pedal while also depressing the reverse pedal (which used to be the brake)
Try to back up in a straight line or you will end up in the snow you have not yet cleared. (Since the chains aren’t here yet this is not a good idea as you will get stuck.)
Start all over again.
Easy, right?

After a few false backwards and forwards I got the hang of it. See for yourself.

Hey, I rock! While not quite up to “Pro” status yet, I didn’t do too badly. I just need a little practice, that’s all. If the past few weeks have been any indication of how snowy our winter is going to be I think I’ll be getting lots of John Jr. time.

Oh the weather outside was frightful

but our new John Deere

lunch (Crab Dip)

tree

and fire

were all so delightful,
with felted slippers snug on our feet,
we let it sleet, let it sleet, let it sleet!

As promised, on Thursday we had a fast moving storm go through. At first I thought it wasn’t going to do anything since they had said it was to start around 9:00 a.m., but by 10:30 the sky was light and all we’d had was the skiff of snow that the dogs left their snow angels in. All of a sudden the sky got dark and big fluffy flakes started to fall. Within an hour we had two to three inches of snow. Then that pretty snow changed to sleet.

Rivers of frozen ice poured from the sky. As the gutters on the house filled to overflowing, I could hear them ridding themselves of their heavy load in the form of a grainy waterfall which spilled noisily over onto the barbecue grill on the deck. At one point I opened the door because the dogs thought they might want to go out. They just stood there looking out, then looking up at me as if to say “you must be joking, we aren’t going out in that!” Of course, while the door was open, eBay the cat decided to make a mad dash for the great outdoors. That lasted about a minute before she was pitifully holding up her ice-cold paw wanting back in. Honestly, that silly cat does love snow.

Once in a while it would try to change back to snow, but the sleet won out until after the sun set. We got a total of about six inches of “whatever.” We would have had a lot more had it not changed to sleet.

Yesterday we had a glorious sunrise.

The sun came out, the temperature rose to 40 degrees F and we had some melting going on. All the little creatures, birds and squirrels alike, took advantage of the weather to stock up on the goodies I put out for them.

Today is equally calm. So far. We’re supposed to get a Nor’easter overnight and throughout tomorrow. Sadly, the heavier snowfall is going to miss us and they are predicting the same mix we got on Thursday. Sounds like a good weekend for just staying inside by the fire! We shall see ...