Winter

We had snow first in mid-November and next in mid-January.


Ben was able to attend Debby's medicare b'day celebration, which we combined with a Chanukah dinner for the local family. The next day, we went down to have lunch with Stef and the twins at Boom Noodle. Then Stef drove Ben to the airport for his return.


In tune with other holiday happenings, we host a gift opening on Dec 25th by our yule tree. Nate got a large train set and Emi got a treasure chest filled with costumes for fairy tale characters. Yours truly kept the home fires stoked.


We had several days of snow in mid-January that dumped ~10 inches on us. The trash guys failed to show up one day; the mailman failed to show on another day. People were hardier when I was young. On the other hand, bad snow is a rarity here, so no great inconvenience from missing an occasional day.

I am determined not to buy snow tires or a snow shovel. I'm a gut-it-out kind of person :-) This is our third winter here and so far so good. I use an inverted metal leaf rake to shovel the snow from the walk and drive. Works great. And the Audi's Quattro AWD works fine with M+S-rated all-weather tires. But we are keeping our eyes open for an AWD baby SUV for Debby, so she can drive herself when the roads are bad.

Owen visited us and caught the beginnings of our current storm. We had Dori and family over for a Saturday night spaghetti feast. On Sunday, Owen enjoyed tromping through the snow before we visited Pike Place Market. The kippered (dry smoked) sockeye salmon from the market is delicious. It was a slow day there, so they even threw our small bag of smoked salmon with loud ceremony, to make a little show for the few patrons in the area. We dined at a wine bar called Purple before getting Owen back to the airport.


Our back yard assumes a special aura when the snow falls:


And meanwhile, creative energy was being expended in a backyard nearby. Gotta love those eye lashes.


As the snow piled on, we couldn't resist going out and frolicking - well as close to frolic as we come these days.


The final word on snowmen was captured via iPhone out the car window just down the block from us.


While walking my usual running route through the neighborhood, this wintery scene handily popped onto my iPhone.