Snow upon snow.
On January 2 we do our snow-bird thing and fly off to southern Florida for a 3 month hiatus from the cold. My muscles and joints are looking forward to warm sun, but today it is snowing, and snowing, and snowing some more. We are expected to get more snow overnight and our flight leaves from Detroit at 9:35 a.m. But as Scarlet said, “I’ll worry about that tomorrow.”
Today I have been packing and putting the last of our Christmas decorations away. I work a little then sit and reflect a little – mostly about the most wonderful celebration we had last night with some friends. All of us made appetizers (shrimp, pot stickers, Thai peanut dip and steamed vegis, a couple of Mexican bean dips). The seven of us sat around the table with wine, beer, champagne, and cranberry/champagne punch while we ate and talked, told stories and laughed. We finished our informal meal with baklava my future daughter-in-law made for Christmas along with other left over Christmas cookies.
Lynn brought the hats & horns and we decided to cheer in the New Year with those in Newfoundland – at 10:30 Eastern Standard Time because no one wanted to wait for local midnight. We are a fun-loving but practical bunch. When people started talking about being tired and calling it a night, they lingered longer obviously not wanting the evening to end. As J and I snuggled under the flannel sheets, he asked if I wanted to watch the ball drop in Times Square. I guess we made it to 12 EST after all, but for us time doesn’t matter – what is important is the celebration we experience when the time is right.
The new-fallen snow was beautiful today and every time I sat in my favorite chair by the window, I wanted to go out and get a few last photos. But it was so cold, 11 degrees F. (-12 C.) with windchill below 0. I think the hardest part of living in this cold is bundling up – layer upon layer. Finally I did it when I started loosing light about 4 pm. It was so cold and it felt so good. I had to tromp through the snow to get the shots I wanted, and this triggered memories of being a child. My eyes watered dry tears. My nose started dripping. And I had so much fun – for maybe 15 minutes. I just can’t take too much fun.
A New Day: Living Life Almost Gracefully 