Brrrrrrr! Cold night!! There's absolutely no doubt the pond is frozen in solidly again. By my count this would be the second freeze of the necessary three. Of course, it could be that winter is really here to stay and it won't open up one more time to make the old timers happy. Right now I wouldn't bet against this being the start of a long, cold winter. Today has been cold and blustery most of the day, with a few snowflakes, but no real accumulation. With a nice fire in the soapstone stove and Christmas music on the radio, and all the snow and cold outside I was content to stay inside and enjoy leftover turkey and plan for the next big holiday. It was easy to make the transition from Thanksgiving to Christmas literally overnight!

I have some interesting stuff that I'm hoping to get on the web site for you soon - historical notes; but I'll send a notice when it's ready and posted. Today I've been getting Ice-Out tickets ready for mailing tomorrow - there were several requests in the mail when I picked it up this week. All this cold weather has dashed our hopes of starting a new contest, an "Ice-In Contest" that so many folks suggested last year when the pond didn't freeze over until after Christmas.

I'll have more for you tomorrow - and will get it posted earlier, I hope. These midnight postings are just awful, but I got caught up in one of those totally predictable but charming Hallmark Christmas made-for-TV movies and here I am. I know some of the folks who read this regularly like to know what the weather is here at the pond because even the Eye-On-the-Sky weather out of St. Johnsbury doesn't always do justice to the unusual weather here at Joe's, so I like to try to keep everyone up to date. Keep warm, wherever you are.