It was a bit chilly early this morning.  Our thermometer was at 16.1F when I first looked at around 6:30, and that was the low reading for the night.  The sun wasn't really up then, but within minutes, the thermometer began to climb and now (out of the sun) it's 22F.   

This photo, taken a few minutes ago, doesn't show much snow as it's of lower ground.  We still have a skimming of snow on the ground around our house and on the hills across the pond.  When I checked the Rossi's webcam earlier, it looked as if the pond is completely frozen over - but I had a message this morning from Diane saying there were geese out in the middle of the pond and she wondered if there was open water out there.  She also wondered if some were frozen in because some were walking around on the ice, but there seemed to be more that weren't moving.  Of course, it's possible they got caught while resting in the water during the night, but I hope they just landed on the clear ice thinking it was open water.  I'm reminded of a video I saw on a TV documentary a long time ago of geese landing on ice and skidding clumsily into each other and having a hard time staying upright.  It was funny to watch, but I expect the poor birds were mighty perplexed.  I don't know if they were able get enough traction on the ice to take off or not.

We went to the basketball game in Cabot last night.  They played the 7/8th grade Waterford team.  It was a good game, and well played.  Waterford has some really strong players and we could see a big difference in the way they played last night compared to last season.  Cabot's girls also did well, but Waterford took the lead right away and never gave it up.  Granddaughter Jo-Ann (5) has come a long way from when she first began playing three years ago.  She had never even seen a basketball game when she arrived here from Namibia, but she learned quickly and has become a valuable player on the Waterford team.  Here is a short slide show from last night's game.

We noticed the Burke's house on the Plain is nicely decorated, and on our way home from the game, stopped to snap a picture from the road.
After the game, we had supper at our house.  We had a great time with Baby Tangeni, who has something new to show us every time we see her.  She's growing fast and is such a happy baby, she makes us laugh just being near her.  When she visits our house, she is particularly fond of a large stuffed ET doll, and Woody.  Woody tolerated mild ear pulls, kisses, having his tail stepped on, petting the wrong way of his fur, and being chased.  What drove him out of the room were Tangeni's loud squeals of delight.  He didn't leave for long, though, and seemed to really enjoy all the attention Tangeni showered on him, except when the party got too loud - then he was out of there.  

We didn't capture any pictures of them together - we were all watching intently to be sure Woody didn't get upset - we know how serious his claws are.  We didn't need to worry, I guess; when he'd had enough he simply trotted away, and he could out run Tangeni, even though she's pretty quick on her feet these days, and he has lots of hiding places.  

We got some pictures at the table, though.  She was clearly posing for Grandpa Fred in these.
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I had found a box of books and games Bill and his brothers had when they were kids, along with some old cookbooks Jo-Ann liked.  They went home with a bag full of books for both girls, and lots of memories for Bill when he starts reading some of them to Tangeni.  I promised to search for "The Night Before Christmas" book, and if I find it, I'll take it to the family party on Christmas Eve.