It sure looks like winter is here!  We got a little over 3 inches of snow overnight Wednesday into this morning, and another 4 or so today, I suppose, although I haven't measured it and I forgot to look at the snow stake out back before darkness fell.  I can see there's quite a bit on our front deck, but I won't be measuring again until about 9 a.m. tomorrow.  Fred was out early this morning to snow blow, but decided to wait until morning before going again.  When he checked late this afternoon he said there wasn't that much additional.  I guess much of it was blowing and maybe landed someplace else.

The ski areas are very happy to have so much natural snow on top of all that man-made base, and people can't wait to fire up their snowmobiles and get out on the trails.  There has been a plea for them to wait until the trails are groomed - probably most will be done by tomorrow.  I heard on the scanner today that in Moretown someone on a snowmobile ran into a 500 gal. propane gas tank, causing it to leak.  All sorts of fire equipment was sent.  I'm guessing that could be pretty serious, depending on where the tank was located.  Apparently nobody was hurt.

I took this picture from our sleet-covered window this morning.  It was snowing quite hard and had been blowing against the window.  I found a small opening and got this picture that seems to be in black and white, but that's just because our world was shades of gray all day.

I mentioned on last Sunday's blog that Mary Encarnacion, our next door neighbor, passed away.  Her obituary was in today's Caledonian Record.

Here are a couple pictures we took on Christmas Eve at our family get-together.  Tangeni, known mostly by her nickname, "Boo-Boo," was in high spirits.  At 17 months, she has endless energy and enthusiasm.  Here she is, decked out in a furry pink backpack, Elmo in one hand and a soft "Meow" pillow in the other.  I think her favorite was a rubber squeeze toy she found that belonged to her Uncle Bob and Aunt Theresa's dog, Casey.  Bob said Casey never liked it.  When Tangeni squeezed it, it made a raspy imitation of a pig's grunt, and that seemed to charm her.

In the next picture, big sister Jo-Ann, or "Jo-Jo"as her dad calls her, displays her really big Justin Bieber fleece throw.  Typically, her dad can't understand why she and most of her friends like Justin so much, but that's probably because he's forgotten what it was like when he was a teenager.  I remember.  There were long years of rock music, the Beatles, Monkeys,  Eagles, Led Zeppelin and lots of others, all played at thunderous decibels and I had to shout "turn it down!" more times than I could count.  One Christmas someone gave them a drum set, and from then on it was bedlam in the basement and eventually we had a full fledged "garage band" at our house.  But that's another story.

Before I call it a day, here is an interesting "happening" some of you may want to join.  It sounds like fun, and I can't wait to see the results!

From  Lars Hasselblad-Torres, a member of Cabot's Planning Commission:

Popup Snow Sculpture Festival & Lighting On The Common

Let's transform Cabot Common into a winter wonderland! Join friends and neighbors for an afternoon of snow sculpture-making followed by an evening candle lighting. Here's what you need to do:
- Join us Saturday, 12/29 on the Cabot Common at 2PM for sculpture-making; at 5PM for the candle-lighting of the sculptures
- Plan to bring everything you need to create - shovel(s), snow shaping tools, gloves, etc
- Bring candles to light your work, including any vessel needed to hold it

We need:
- Warm drinks to share for our custom out-door snow bar!
- A steel drum for a central fire barrel (call Lars if you have one you can loan)
- Unpainted scrap wood to burn (small pieces, clean burning please)

Other tips:
- Freeze water in buckets ahead of time to create glassy candle holders (don't let the centers freeze for a lantern effect!)
- Bring a spraying water bottle to help harden the surface of your sculpture (and any insulation required to keep it from freezing)
- Large families, work together or in teams
- Have fun!

Questions? Email lhtorres@gmail.com or ring 802-595-0605

Hope to see you there!

Lars Hasselblad Torres
Janet Van Fleet