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 ...

Where oh where did the dogs go? They even left their bones behind ...

About the only thing around here that’s in the Christmas Spirit is the weather. We’ve had some type of snow nearly every day since the weekend. An inch here, a flurry there, and showers scattered around. It’s really nice. But otherwise I couldn’t be less in the spirit of things this year. Usually I love Christmas, but this year it just doesn’t seem like it at all. I still think they should insert another month in-between Thanksgiving and Christmas to give us all time to adjust to the whole idea. I never think about Christmas until Thanksgiving is over with, and then it’s only three weeks away. I need more time!

When I was a child Christmas was a magical time. We would go shopping in downtown Poughkeepsie where all the store fronts were decorated gaily. We bought our Christmas tree. Mom would bake cookies and my sister and I would decorate them with different colored frostings. My Dad would roll out the fake plug-in fireplace and put it in the den where the tree stood in all its tinselly glory. We made trips at night in the car to drive by looking at Christmas lighting displays. Everything we did contributed to the whole feel of the season.

Then the big morning finally arrived and we were greeted with a tree piled high with presents. I think our parents totally spoiled us!

Hah, look at me in my baggy britches PJs! Who am I going to whack with that candy cane??

Here we are getting our Patty PlayPal dolls. She’s as big as I am!

I wish I could recapture some of that childhood magic. Maybe I don’t try hard enough. I should get out shopping, bake cookies, sing carols to the dogs, etc. This year there is still the pall of sadness over my Mom’s death hanging around. I still haven’t started to decorate the house. Our tree (which we got last weekend) is still standing in a bucket of water in the garage. We haven’t gotten around to putting lights up outside yet. This weekend, I keep telling myself, we must do all of that. To put it all up only to take it all back down and pack it up again in two weeks seems ridiculous somehow. Yet I know it will help us to “get in the spirit.”

To me it’s not about the presents but the whole feeling surrounding this time of year. Maybe I’m just a big kid that never grew up and I expect too much. It’s not something you can force. Either you feel it or you don’t.

The week before Christmas we have tickets to see the Rockettes in the Christmas Spectacular at Radio City Music Hall in NYC. I’m excited about that! We’ll roam around Rockefeller Center and see the big tree lit up, folks ice skating in the chilly air, and it will seem like something out of a Christmas movie. When I was a child my parents took me in on the train to see the Rockettes for my birthday a couple of times, but that was back in the days that they had a movie instead of stage show. I remember we saw “Father Goose” one year. Maybe by then I’ll be feeling more Christmas-y.

I love having different birds at my feeder. I have a feeding station out front where I basically just spread seed on the ground and in a bird bath, plus two hanging feeders on the deck. Yesterday to my great regret as I looked out at the front one I saw the large stray cat (not my kitten; a grown cat) rush towards the birds and it caught one. NOOOOOOOOO!!!!!! I rushed outside and shooed it away. Alas, it still had the bird in its mouth. Listen guys, this is supposed to be a bird feeding station, not a bird eating station. Sigh. Poor birdy. I felt so badly. I felt as if I had contributed to its demise.

Here are my “back yard” birds.

We have a pair of Downy Woodpeckers that come to the suet I have out. Here is Mrs. Downy.

And Mr. Downy seen through a blur of snowflakes.

The goldfinches are wearing their somewhat drab winter coats.

We have tons of Tufted Titmice around. I love their little top knots. They are sweet birds. Looking very penguin-ish is a nuthatch in the background.

Here’s the White-Breasted Nuthatch. He looks like he’s wearing a toupee to me.

And the Junco looking very cold this morning.