The word around town is SNOW. We've had more than our fair share of the white stuff this winter. The favorite statistic being waved around town is that we have already reached a record high for snow fall for a single winter and we still have 2 or 3 months left of the "snow season." Yes, that is all true. It certainly made driving yesterday and interesting endeavor requiring full and focused attention (as well as some very good luck). Christopher is getting tired of clearing the front deck and stairs -- that is one of his chores in general, although I helped him out a bit yesterday. It all makes for a very pretty landscape, and I admit I'll take it over the harrowing cold. That said, I'm ready for a break from the shovel.

In the meantime, I'll share a few photos from the Christmas season, including one of Cate's piano recital. She played "Joy to the World" and "Away in the Manger." I mentioned earlier on the blog that it is fairly amazing to see what a difference one year of lessons can make. Last year she was plunking notes out with one hand. This year, she played with both hands and even had a left hand crossing over the right hand moment. Unlike her mother, she seems to be enjoying practicing for the most part. She's not always excited to practice the exact pages she's supposed to do, but it isn't a huge struggle either. And she often will choose to sit at her piano and compose a little ditty of her own. Her electronic piano can record those ditties, so she can remind herself of her previous work and build on it. Cool stuff -- I'm very proud of her!

We had a lovely, lovely Christmas. It was quieter than usual -- we didn't have a big group over to the house as we usually do. But it was lovely, and intimate and quite enjoyable. We ate well, we shared Christmas Eve with some friends, and still got a Christmas afternoon nap in. Who can argue with that?

Do you like our new Christmas tree in the background here? We use artificial trees because of allergies to live trees. We had the same artificial tree for 15 years and this year we upgraded to a larger tree that our larger home can handle. It also has a cool feature allowing us to switch the pre-lit lights from multi-colored lights to white lights at the touch of a button. Who thinks up this stuff? I don't know but it's cool, especially for somebody like me who likes to have the lights up for months on end.