Our temperature got well below zero last night and it's still 6 below on my office thermometer. The sun is beautiful - lots of snow on the trees and everything is clean and white. I measured another half inch of new snow this morning, and got a measurement of 17.5 in. total on the ground in our back yard. I don't know how cold it got last night - it was about two below when I turned in at around 11 o'clock. Somehow, when the sun is so bright you hardly notice it's that cold.

The top picture is from our living room window - the comparison shot that's my version of a web cam! There normally isn't much going on around us that is observable in the daytime - this time of year traffic on the road is down considerably except some weekends and a snowmobile from time to time. We aren't like our neighbor who has a fisher cat visit routinely at night. That would be fun to watch.

The trees in back of our house are loaded with snow and very beautiful. Not a good time to go hiking through the woods, though. The snow is light and fluffy and it doesn't take much to dislodge it into a cold shower.

We have traditionally been at our neighbor, Elizabeth Wiedmer's on New Year's Day, but this year there was a conflict so it was delayed a week; then she learned her son, Michael was coming, so waited until he could be with us. It was a very nice afternoon - Elizabeth is a great cook (and so is Michael) and the food is always special. At the table from left to right: Ruth Hermida, Jan Westervelt, Michael , Fred and Elizabeth. Missing in this picture is Janet Westervelt and me. Even though Ruth and the Westervelts live not too far away, we don't often see them, so this New Year's tradition is always filled with interesting conversation.

Tonight we'll be at the basketball game between Waterford's and Danville's 5-6th grade girls, at Danville. Jo-Ann told me they had a full schedule of basketball over the weekend and her Waterford team nearly won a trophy - but they lost the last game. However, there's another tournament coming up, and she's full of enthusiasm.