tis the season ~

It's cold and snowy in my neck of the woods.  All day, the white stuff has been falling.  On the weather channel they are predicting 12 to 18 inches of snow before this system clears our area.

Let it snow ... let it snow ... let it snow!

Seeing as how I was snowbound to the house ... I decided to put the tree up and do a little decorating ... and a little baking.  I really wasn't 100% snowbound ... I did venture out and down the road over to my Mom's this morning to get some eggs.  Since my egg lady's house burnt down a few weeks ago ~ I had to find a new egg connection.  Mom said that her chickens started laying a little bit more on a daily basis ~ so now I'm buying my eggs from her.  Mom said I didn't have to pay her for the eggs; but I didn't feel right about that.  She has to buy chicken feed just like the next guy ~ and I was buying them from my other source ... so I insisted.  I could buy them from the grocery store; but farm fresh eggs are so much tastier than the store bought.

Normally, when the weather starts to get cold the chickens do let up on egg production.  I did give her a little advice; I said if the chickens start to slow up in their egg production ~ maybe a stump sitting by the coop door with the ax in it would keep them laying.  Just a thought.

My tree this year is just a little itty bitty thing ... actually ... it's just the top section of my artificial tree.  I'm just not into a big tree this year; I don't know why.  Last year I gave away a LOT of my ornaments to the girls so it's probably just as well that I'm opting for such a small tree.  I can already hear them though the next time they come over about me putting up an artificial tree ... and the lecture they'll give me about living in the north woods with all these trees at our disposal and here I go and put up a fake one.

My tree topper is an old OLD greeting card of an angel that was my Great Aunt Clara's.  She had given the card to me when I was around 10 years old while I was helping her one Christmas put up her tree.  Aunt Clara was a sweetheart.  When she was in her 80's, and my sister and I were around 8 and 10, she'd still get down on the floor and play a round of jacks or pick up sticks with my sister and I, and she'd sip lime Kool Aid from the "good" glasses at our "dinner party" as if she was being served a fine Merlot.

Do you have your favorite ornaments?

I have so many ...

and each with it's own special meaning ...

... like my fat flying angel

or

the chickadee jingle bell with the stick in it's mouth

sitting by the little nest of eggs

in the pineapple plant.

Until next time ...

So it goes in my neck of the woods.

~mel