It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas...

The snow started Monday around 5, picked up again around noon Tuesday, then today we woke up to about four inches on the ground. And it is COLD!

We broke out the Christmas decorations after Thanksgiving. Carson was quite hip to get them going which was good. He was also quite the helper with the ornaments on the tree. He really enjoyed that. I am generally not very anal retentive except when it comes to certain things, and one thing is that the ornaments must be evenly spread around the tree. Needless to say, I had to fight that one obsession and let Carson put them wherever he wanted. I've only rearranged a few...

Last Christmas Mom and Dad gave us a big blowup Snowman. They have a Snowman and Santa at their house, and Carson was so totally enthralled that we had to get one too. Only thing is our Snowman is physically disabled when we put the light in his head. It pulls his head down to one side. So that's still a conundrum how to make him stand up straight plus be lit. We also have some outdoor lights to put up, and naturally we didn't get those done till the cold and snow arrived. Maybe this weekend.

I have the prettiest mantel. Lots of greenery, bright balls, and different colored bunches of grapes. Plus three tall candle holders. I am seriously challenged in the decorating department, so my dear sister helped me pick all this out a few years ago - in fact I think it was our first year here. So every time I look at my mantel, I think about Stephanie. And am so grateful there are those that take pity on my deficiencies. :-)

We have to shovel the snow off our sidewalks, and since we live on a corner, we get stuck with two sidewalks. One of our next door neighbors, Jason, has a snowblower, and he kindly cleans our sidewalk that joins to theirs (Thanks Jason!). The other sidewalk is on the north side of the house. I gave it two days hoping the snow on it it would miraculously disappear, but of course it didn't. That's why ski slopes face north - the snow doesn't melt as quickly. So I finally dragged myself to the garage looking for the snow shovel. Couldn't find it, so I convinced myself it broke last year. I go to the other next door neighbors to borrow their shovel. Melanie instead said her son Marcus would shovel it. Sweet boy shoveled not only that sidewalk but the one on the east side that's close to the house, and wouldn't let me pay him. Steve gets home that evening, I tell him what happened, he informed me the shovel was NOT broken, and he found it in the garage. !! I believe I will just say we bought a new one at Home Depot...