Last night we had a visit from Santa. He didn’t arrive in quite the usual way. You see, all our lovely snow melted and he had no choice but to arrange something else. So, he got a little help from the local fire department. His sleigh was borne in fine style on a flatbed trailer pulled by the fire department instead of the usual reindeer. As he went by the fire engine sounded the siren and had all the whirling lights going. Quite the entrance for the dear old man.

In case you think I jest, I do not. You remember Fire Truck Santa from years past, right? This time we have a new fire department covering our area and instead of sitting on the front bumper of the fire truck as he usually does, this Santa had his own sleigh. So darned cute! Sorry, it was dark when he arrived and I could not get a photo of the little parade. Trust me when I tell you it was magical. It made my day. 

We saw the light from the living room first, then when we realized what was happening we quick ran to the door to turn on the outside lights (which we had yet to do), opened the front door and stood in the doorway. As he went past he yelled “Merry Christmas.” They turned around in our cul-de-sac and started back our way. We both had our slippers on but mine are sturdier with a good sole, so Rick handed me a $20 bill and I took off jogging up the driveway. They stopped for me and rolled down the window of the truck that was pulling Santa and I handed them the money. They thanked me very graciously and continued down our road very slowly, hoping for more donations.

It’s a lovely custom and I can only say that had Santa come by my house when I was a child I would have been over the moon! Heck, it still makes me feel like a child again. Silly, but true.

Today has been dark and rainy. I am not surprised anymore by this kind of weather at Christmas. If I look back in my archives of the blog, or even just over on the sidebar under “On This Day” I was always lamenting about the lack of snow, and most years since we’ve lived here it has rained. At least we had some snow last week, and tomorrow night there is even a chance of an evening snow shower in the forecast. I won’t be holding my breath though. At least it will feel more like Christmas with temperatures in the 30’s instead of the 50’s.

We got about 3 inches of snow yesterday. For a while the snow came down fast and furious to the point where I could barely see my neighbor’s house across the street. It was beautiful. But like I said, it’s supposed to warm up (60 degrees on Sunday!) and rain so most of it will wash away and we are in for a slushy not-so-white Christmas. I feel another song  coming on …

I changed the view of the weather cam to point to where I feed the birds. I changed it yesterday so that Rick could see the turkeys too while he was at work. You might see them too! Or you might see the fox visit. For those of you who don’t know, just click on the “Weather” tab at the top of the page and it will take you directly to the cam. It takes a new picture every two minutes or so.

Yesterday I made beef barley soup while it snowed outside. There is something comforting about the smell of browning meat. I put my favorite Christmas album on the iPod (Michael Martin Murphey’s Cowboy Christmas) and danced around the kitchen in-between cooking. At first the dogs didn’t know what to think. What is mommy doing?  What’s wrong with her? But finally Bella joined me and we four-stepped (instead of two-stepped) around the kitchen island. Not that I really know how to do the two-step, but hey, we had fun. Hailey watched us and barked along to the music.

That music takes me back to the few Christmases that we were able to spend at the cabin. One year we were even industrious enough to make our own garland for the tree by popping popcorn and stringing it with cranberries. Here is a photo of one of our cabin Christmases.

I’ve been watching the Hallmark channel quite a bit. They are playing sappy Christmas movies pretty much non-stop. Some are good and very heart-warming, while others can be downright stupid. But mostly they make me feel all warm and fuzzy inside and in the spirit of the season. I think it’s a good thing.

I am working on another Lacy Leaf scarf (remember?) but I made a big mistake and I am having a hard time figuring out how to fix it without taking out any more rows. I might just have to take it down to the knitting shop in Wycoff for help. Bummer. It was coming along so well. This time I am making it in gray.

Last night I got up in the middle of the night and the moon was so bright. I looked out the window to see moon shadows of the trees on the newly fallen snow. Magical. Have you ever seen moon shadows?

 (Sing to the tune of “It’s Beginning to Look A Lot Like Christmas”)

and yes, I made up the lyrics

This pretty much sums up our weather lately. On Saturday/Saturday night we got about 8 inches of snow, the last inch or so of that was a nice layer of ice from the freezing rain. Right now as I type it’s snowing again outside! I wish the snow would stick around (no pun intended) until Christmas but we are supposed to be warming up to temperatures in the 50’s with rain, so it might all wash away in a big pile of slush. Boohoo. Hopefully some of it will remain. At least it looks Christmas-y outside right now. 

These scenes are from Green Turtle Pond that I took yesterday on my little walk. The shadows were so blue.

While snowplowing the drive with Johnny Saturday, Rick went over the edge of the driveway by mistake and got stuck in the snow. We had to get the Surburban and hook up a tow rope to Johnny. Rick got on Johnny and I got in the truck and slowly backed up. It worked! Fun and games in the winter weather, and it isn’t even officially winter yet by the calendar.

Like I said, today it is snowing and I am being lazy around the wood stove. Remember just the other day I was remarking how we never see the turkeys anymore? Well, lo and behold, when I looked out the front window a little while ago, there they were! Twelve of them! I was so happy to see them!

I was thinking I could revise my little made-up lyrics yet again. Bear with me and maybe I can make you smile today. Here we go …

Okay, maybe I’m being a little bit silly today. Did I get you to sing along?

Yesterday we had about 2.5 inches of wet snow. It stuck to everything and made it all look very Christmas-y. Very nice indeed. It won’t be melting either since we are to have below freezing temperatures through the end of this week when it’s predicted we get yet another storm on Saturday. Right now we’ve heard everything from another wintry mix to 3 to 5 inches of snow first, then ice, then rain. Both my neighbors have their Christmas parties planned for Saturday and Sunday, so I hope they still get a good turn-out. All we have to do is make it across the street so I guess at least we’ll show up.

Nearly every night I am awakened by this sound. It penetrates through the closed windows. Very eerie. At first I wondered if it was a bird of some sort, but no, it’s the fox. It makes other odd sounds too. Sometimes it sounds like it’s right under our window, while other times it’s in the distance. The sound really carries in the moist, damp air. I don’t mind having it around but I do think it’s the reason we don’t have any turkeys anymore. I miss the turkeys. I’m not sure if it’s still living under the side deck or not since I haven’t actually seen it in a while, but the dogs check out the hole almost every day.

If you want to see our weather you can always check out our weather cam which is now aimed at the front of the house. (Note: images stop at sunset.) You might even catch a glimpse of me once in a while!

Photo: our front door

Oh my! How did two weeks fly by without a blog post? I’m not quite sure. One reason might be that while scooping dog food out of the can while feeding the dogs last week, the tip of my index finger made contact with the sharp rim of the can and sliced an envelope-like deep cut with a flap. It’s been too sore to type with. You don’t realize how many things you do with the tip of your index finger until you lose the use of it! Things like typing, knitting, swiping my iPad, washing my hair, etc. At least the flap is healed over now and I’m not at risk for catching it and ripping it back open. It’s still tender to the touch and a little numb.

At least that’s a reason for not blogging.

We’re getting into the Christmas spirit finally. On Friday I hung all the lighted garlands in the house around doorways, brought up our little fiber optic snowman and plugged them all in for an instant transformation. Saturday found us at our favorite little locally owned nursery to buy our “old-fashioned-style” fir tree. We also bought a wreath for the door and wreaths for the light posts at the top of our driveway. We spent the rest of Saturday decorating the outside of our front door and porch railings. We decided not to put lights on the trees in front this year because we can never get them off until March, so we settled for a lighted entry. It looks good. 

Yesterday dawned gray and gloomy. We walked the dogs and split some firewood, plus carrying over more firewood from the reserve stash in the yard to underneath the deck. Then we tackled trimming the tree. It’s a very pretty tree, plump and full with not much space for ornaments to hang. 

The weather has been gray a lot. It’s also been cold enough for the ponds and lakes to begin freezing over. Last night we had a “wintry mix” overnight and everything is coated with ice. One unlovely thing about living in the East: the icy stuff that falls from the sky instead of snow. We are supposed to get 2-4 inches of snow tomorrow, so we’ll see. If so, it will be the first one this year.

I think we’re ready for winter, so bring it on!