White Christmas

As far as record amount of snowfall, these holidays weren't record setters.  We did get a fair amount of snow, but the remarkable part of the weather was how warm it was when it snowed, and how cold it got during/after snowing.  One morning I woke up and it was -8 degrees! Unusual for Tahoe!  The trees stayed frozen and covered with snow for days (bad news for our fruitless plum tree--you can see in the 3rd picture that it is heavy laden and slightly broken).  These bright blue skies and bright white trees remind me of my mom--we love these picturesque days!

 We had one full day with the power out, and another full day with decreased/unstable power.  We have a generator that is supposed to kick in if the power goes out, but it wasn't working.  Not a big deal, except that our house is heated entirely by an electric furnace.  We were fortunate enough to have the generator serviced and working by early afternoon.  Andrew commented that all the electricity unreliability made it feel like we were living in a cabin.  I'd have to agree.  That, combined with the fact that many of us were sick (some weird cold/tummy combo) made us eager to be done with the holidays and onto 2011.

All the snow compiled on our deck.

Like Snow

 My established love for snow is joining my new found appreciation for poetry today.  When we were in Tahoe for Thanksgiving, we had some great snow storms, the kind of storms that usually wait until Christmas/New Years.  I hope it was just a practice run...we'll be back there soon and hope that the snow keeps falling!  This poem is by Wendell Berry, and is called "Like Snow".  I thought it would be fitting for my snowy pictures.

Suppose we did our work
like the snow, quietly, quietly
leaving nothing out.