Shiloh and Triangle Tina

We enjoyed a wonderful Christmas ... big dinner with turkey, ham, cornbread dressing, sweet potatoes, rosemary potatoes, fresh cranberry sauce, giblet gravy, broccoli and rolls. Helen and Ed came over and stayed to play with Helen's photos from her digital camera. Some of the pics I'll be posting up here have come from her snapshots over this past year. Its cool to see her becoming comfortable with digital toys :) Yesterday I drove over to the west side of town and went by Rob and Nomi's house. I was thinking to drop off their Christmas box and then continue on my errands, but Nomi was home and Shiloh was napping and then pretty soon Rob came home and Shiloh got up to visit. Ryan and I made dolls for Shiloh and Sadie for Christmas. Shiloh's doll is named Triangle Tina. She's full of 100% cotton to make for good chewing. Her hair is tubes of quilting cotton and as you can see she is quite a hit. I was very pleased :)

And this is an awesome picture :) Shiloh and Dad ...

Shiloh and Santa

Rob says "About 30 seconds after this she looked at him and started crying a little bit. Reminded me of "A Christmas Story", we got pics of that too. I'll put them up as soon as we get them off of the camera."

Snow!

December 17, 2008 ... haven't seen this much snow come down in such a short time in my memory. I heard reports of 2" per hour there for a bit. I was driving across town, of course, and got stuck in various lines of non-moving traffic. Finally took the coats off the dogs and we just visited, caught up on phone calls, and generally enjoyed the views. We were 3 hours driving 20 miles, and I heard worse stories. People leaving downtown at 5pm were 2 hours to drive 10 blocks. It was crazy! Today, two days later, the roads are plowed, we've all shoveled the MOUNTAINS of snow out of our driveways after the plows came by, and life is pretty much back to normal winter. It is beautiful. The kids were scheduled to have today (Friday) be their last day of school before Christmas break, but every school in the area closed on Wednesday and never resumed. In this part of the country, where we expect snow and know how to deal with it, we almost never stop the daily routines with stormy weather. Occasionally though, like yesterday, its so wonderful to just sit back, snowed-in, and remember how awesome it is to live here. Happy Holidays!!

I heard reports of 23", but we got 19" by our yardstick-measuring-method on top of the flatbed trailer. Here's the view looking west out of through the breezeway toward the driveway. Check out the snow on the top of the garage roof on the left. Here's what a demo car looks like under 2' of snow :) Skip is currently being chauffered to work with the SUBARU (!!!) --- not because the truck isn't running just fine, and the Jeep, but just because it means he gets to get into a warm car at night after work. This is Pippy's first encounter with snow. She started off not wanting to go outside, but she loves it now. With 2 coats on, of course :)

The Heart of Christmas At the hearth of hope, in the manger of the humble mind, on the Sabbath of everyday, in the holiness of everywhere, in the evergreen of time no longer, in the whispering praise of stars (one silver shining for each of us), at the eternal moment of divine conception, in the unfolding of continuous creation, the annunciation of abundance, the trumpets of heaven’s windows’ raising, is the end of longing for belonging, the visible beginning of invisible grace. In the gift of the giver, the present of the presence, the outward embrace of indwelling Love, all things become lamb-white and new. We are born over and over in the beauty of perfection, crowned kings and queens, princes and princesses of peace, open unspeakable gifts on the altar of exceeding joy. The child-heart leaps in wonder and welcome, beating with the great heart of Christmas. -Alfred Gemrich Christian Science Sentinel,December 22, 2008