Wednesday, December 27, 2017

Christmas

















































The week leading up to Christmas was full of so much planning and prepping, I'm not sure how I survived. The girls were up early every morning, usually by 5:30. Some mornings, I got up even earlier because my sleep was so poor and my mind racing to remember all the things I needed to keep track of. I think I will need to sleep for a week before I start to feel truly relaxed.
We opened gifts with our kids very early, and ate our Christmas breakfast of cinnamon rolls, scrambled eggs, sausage and oranges by 7am. Then after showering, I worked on cookie dough that I had refrigerated overnight and then timed the ham to go in after lunch. By 2pm, Shane's brother's family arrived and we sat down to our dinner around 4:30 pm. After they left in the evening, I started the dishwasher, put two girls to bed and then went to bed myself.
Early the next morning, we got up, packed up the car and the cat and drove down to my parents' home. We saw two ships in the St. Lawrence River, both Christmas red of course.
In New York, the interstate posted signs warning of lake effect snow with whiteout conditions expected and within ten minutes we were in the middle of a crazy snow squall. We kept on driving and in about 15 minutes, the snow clouds cleared and we were back under blue skies. We passed two stuck cars on our side of the highway with police on the scene very quickly. We were very thankful to pass through unscathed.
It is very cold here in Pennsylvania, so walking around on my parents' property is not as comfortable right now. But the fresh air clears out the mind and gives time to reflect on the coming new year.

2 comments:

  1. The cat proves that it is preferable to be on two (paws) rather than four in the snow. Cats are so funny in the snow! I love the spoon rests! Your presents and ornaments are precious. Very cool wood stove!The landscape shots were wonderful; it must have caused some anxiety going through the storm. I am so glad you arrived safely!thank you for sharing your Christmas pictures.

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  2. Anonymous12:54 AM

    Your kitty is beautiful. I would be scared to death to let my cats outside like that, even supervised. You must have trained your cat to remain in very close proximity to your house.

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