Winter Wonderland

Every winter we wonder why we live in this land!

The first snow fall came a little earlier than we expected but was short lived; just enough to build a snowman that melted by evening.

The bitter cold settled in during the first week of December, leaving a dusting of snow plastered to trees. Though extremely hard on fingers and face, the cold created a gorgeous landscape. . . for the first storm. After that it was just annoyingly bitter and left us missing the good old days of summer.

The extreme cold temperatures were soon joined by gusty winds resulting in days of school cancellations, snowed in vehicles, animals sleeping indoors and no desire whatsoever to go outside. Blustery days left mounds of snow along the garage and completely buried our front steps. After opening the garage door we found a solid slant of snow starting at 7 inches and inclining to 9 inches. It was a mesmerizing, rippled land formation which turned into a never-ending nightmare to shovel out. Of course, these storms came while our 4-wheeler was in the shop so it all had to be done by hand. Never have I felt so connected to my inner Laura Ingalls!

Nathan was a huge help shoveling out of this particular storm. LeRoy can't shovel because of his back, Justin cleared enough to get his car out for work, and Hyrum tried but it was a wet, heavy snow. In one night we got nearly 7.5 inches of snow (measured on the previously cleared sidewalk).

I often joke that I have a smidgen of bear DNA in me because all I want to do during the winter is hibernate. Most days, it's not a far exaggeration. With darkness coming as early as 5 p.m. our daily routine often winds down to reading which is where LeRoy and Justin usually find us as they saunter in "late" (7-8 p.m.) from work.

Though I have tried to live in the moment and smile my way through the blahs of winter, I can't help but long for summer days of the past . . .