Like a curtain opening on another act of a giant stage production, Thanksgiving weekend is nearly over and the Christmas season will now be in full swing, heralded today by light snow falling.  I bet the deer hunters wish they'd had a little more snow, but at the end of today deer hunting season is over except for muzzle loaders and archery hunters, who can hunt until December 13.  

The snow is sticking in certain cold spots - the cat ice on the lake, stones and wood piles, and along the sides of the road - and we are finally going to have to face winter for real, probably within a few days. We've had an unusually nice November - more sunshine than normal and certainly much higher temperatures.  However, there have been some really cold nights, so the average temperature for the month may not be too far from normal.

We put up a Christmas tree on our deck yesterday.  It was such a nice, warm afternoon, we decided to take advantage of that and get the tree up and lighted.  We usually wait too long and do it in freezing weather.  We congratulated each other that we'd done it even though it's a bit earlier than usual.  Fred cut a good sized spruce that was growing under the electric power line and would have to be cut within a few years anyway.  It turned out to be less of a "Charlie Brown" tree than we usually put up outside.  I took down the Thanksgiving decorations and today got some Christmas greens up - and that is probably the extent of our decorating for this year.  It's a lovely time of the year and I do enjoy the decorations in stores, the music, and even the Hallmark Christmas shows on TV that seem to all have similar themes, but you gotta love that they always have a happy ending.  

In case some of you haven't been paying attention - it's just a bit over three weeks until Christmas.  You can keep track here:  Days to Christmas.

Did you know we have a newcomer in the neighborhood?  George and Pat Parizo on Sandy Beach Road sent us a picture of this cutie, "Josie," who recently came to live at their house.   She looks like a lot of fun, for sure.