We hope everyone had a very Merry Christmas and that you are recovering well from the frenzy of the holiday.  We had a lovely

Christmas Eve with the family at our house.  Here's a picture of the whole group (sorry, I had to piece together two shots to get everyone in).  From lower left is Tangeni, and her mom, Monika; then Bill and Jo-Ann; Fred at the head of the table; Theresa and Bob, Marie and Jamie.  Dinner came after presents, and I think there was a little fatigue setting in for Tangeni.  Below, she's introducing her mermaid to Woody.  He retained his dignity throughout the evening in spite of lots of people (so many feet to dodge) and so much attention. 
  
We are regaining our energy after a big meal and busy day Wednesday, accomplishing almost nothing yesterday but today I managed to climb the hill for our mid-day walk, a feat I had avoided for at least three consecutive days.  Just missing one day makes it harder to do the climb, and today it was really difficult, not only because I was totally out of shape but also because there are now icy spots.  With my creepers on I was ok, but I think it always requires more energy when you need to watch carefully where every footstep goes in order to avoid a fall.  I don't totally trust the creepers, especially on really hard ice; but today the icy spots were a bit slushy from all the warm weather we've had, so no problem.  

Our spring-like weather may be about to end, according to the weather folks.  By this time next week we will be near zero temps.  More what one expects in late December and January. We have lost over half our snow cover, so more snow will be welcome.  We've had some strong, gusty winds, but so far no power outages.  We have two sets of new neighbors from out-of-state, and they have wondered if power outages were the norm after experiencing the last one a couple weeks ago.  We were happy to tell them outages really don't happen all that often, but we all keep our flashlights and kerosene lamps handy - just in case.  The picture above was taken on Tuesday after and during the rain that melted the snow on the roof and then froze in long icicles at night.