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Christmas eve, anyway. It’s a warm spell, and the snow is melting, but there’s enough left to qualify for a white Christmas. Not at all Christmasy this year am I. Didn’t write a card, buy a present, make a cookie, put up a single decoration. But that’s okay. I am happy. Christmas dinner with old and dear friends tomorrow, and having a relaxing day, is the plan. Missing my loved ones, but I do realize that life is what it is, and things are the way they are, and I am okay with that. I hope everyone everywhere has a happy holiday season, and the best new year yet.

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Yes, we’ve had a bit of snow. Both last night and this afternoon. Both times it changed to rain, though, so no accumulation. But how lovely, this afternoon, to look out at big snowflakes slowly drifting down. I love the first snows. They remind me of our first year here in Massachusetts, when a storm began with large, soft flakes, slowly slowly slowly drifting down. For three days. It was amazing. My first truly huge snowstorm. We all went mad for it. When the sidewalks were plowed, the snow was piled head-high. It was February, 1969, and I will never forget standing on our screened-in second floor porch with my husband, watching the snow fall. Soft, hushed, beautiful. It is one of my favorite life-time memories. Snow.