Winter Wonderland

Normally, I really dislike un-christmas songs like "Winter Wonderland" or "White Christmas" and I REALLY dislike "Let It Snow" (it's about an unmarried couple hoping for the excuse to spend the night together...) However, we've had record cold and snow here in the Portland area this week and NOW those songs are appropriate! Bring on all the Christmas and Winter music, let's jingle bell rock!!!

So, "little dog" Mercy is REALLY turning out to be a "Butler"... he will pull kleenex out of trash cans and "fight" it into little bits of white all over the house and my red living room rug. He turns my home into a winter wonderland of a tissue kind - very similar to what Butler did with bread when he was a kitten. Mercy also plays chase and bites at feet the same way Butler did. He really is a love and fitting into our home so well. :D

Ok, so snow. Want to see pics?? Here we go:

Here is the car early yesterday. Andy had to clear it off 3 or 4 times before we went out to run some errands yesterday. It is now coated in a thick unpenaterable coat of ice holding Andy's gloves hostage.













Our pretty front porch. Also early yesterday.


















We lost power last night until mid-day today. Brrrrrrrrrrrr it was cold!!! Here are Mercy and Cooper snuggled up together. Shared body heat helps in times like these. :D














Another picture of our house yesterday morning. You can't see any of the stones in front of the mailbox or flower beds any more. You can't tell the street from the yard either. I asked Andy to take another picture for me today. No, I'm NOT going out in that again. Yesterday was enough!















I got up this morning (in the freezing cold power outage) and sat at the kitchen table bundled up in my flannel jammies, wrapped in 2 blankets, finishing up our christmas cards. There are about 175 cards so far, be patient, we'll get them out. Soon. After I had enough of that freezing-ness, I crawled back into bed and fell happily asleep. Andy got up though (so much for shared body heat!) and called his folk in Germany. No power, but a working phone! He had a good visit with his parents while Sarah took a bunh of pictures around the house. Merry Christmas, Oma & Opa!



















That's about it for now. It's been a weird week with school and church and their related holiday events canceled. I hope the weather is ok for a Christmas Eve service. Besides the short power outage, we're all happy, healthy and safe. Sarah's in HEAVEN with all this snow. Cooper is too! He gets good playtime outside with Sarah and then he gets to stay in the house for hours at a time. Rough life.

Ok, back to finishing up the Christmas cards. I'm up to "Lick envelopes". You can see why I would take a break from them, hahah!