Winter Wonderland

Anyone who lives in the South (and especially us Native Southern Belles), will readily admit that any hint of ice, snow, sleet, or freezing rain sends us scurrying to the grocery store for milk, bread, eggs, and water, to Home Depot for generators, flashlights, batteries, and candles, and to out behind the woodshed to chop up plenty of extra firewood so we can fend off the possibility of actually freezing to death during the night. To put it mildly, we prepare for a Nor'easter blizzard that actually comes in the form of maybe a couple of inches of actual frozen precipitation. So to all you Yanks out there scoffing at us -- this is not an apology - nor is it even a bit self-effacing - nope, absolutely not. Us Southerners are more accustomed our beloved climate (the very one that entices cold-stunned Yankees to flock here by the millions) - and we are far happier sweating out the strident heat of summer than we would be suffering through the misery of a Buffalo or Chicago winter -- no question! So the fact that a wintry day or two throughout the year whips us into a frenzy shouldn't come as a surprise. We enjoy "playing winter" for a day, or two at the most, and we live it up Hurricane-party style. We have enjoyed the snow and ice here at the Thomas home - no school and a day to play in the white stuff - it's been nice! Uncle Chad, Meggy, Madison, and Chandler came over and we played on the four-wheeler all day. Madison Stanford and Caroline have just come in from the cold and are snuggled up watching a movie and we've got a Crock Pot full of homemade spaghetti for dinner. Life is good. Now... to watch the school closings for one more day's reprieve!

"January brings the snow, makes our feet and fingers glow."
  ~Sara Coleridge

Merry Christmas!

Well, the Big Man came to the Thomas house and what a visit he made. Caroline and Emily slept soundly all night long knowing that sometime during their slumber Santa Claus himself would slide down the chimney and leave some nice treats for "good" little girls who live here. It started early when Caroline came creeping down the stairs, slowly and tentatively at first, then proclaiming, upon seeing her bounty, "He came! He came!" Caroline had wished and wished for her very own Nintendo DS all year long and she just knew that Santa was going to bring her one. How disappointed she was when she saw that he hadn't.... she was still very excited about the other nice things he brought her, but we could see that she was still hopefully looking around for that one special gift. After some serious looking, she spied a shiny, pink DS among the branches of the Christmas tree! Santa had tricked her! She was delighted. Emily slept in (of course, the one day it would have been fine to get up super early and she picks this day to sleep late!! Go figure.) When she did get up, she could tell something special was going on and had a good time exploring her own little treasure trove. We had a good brunch and then tried to relax a little bit. It was a wonderful morning!

"One of the most glorious messes in the world is the 

mess created in the living room on Christmas day.  

Don't clean it up too quickly."

  ~Andy Rooney