fourth grade homework:
draw your family —
he starts again

(Thank to the good folks at Haiku Bones,
and to my friend S, whose great post
on this topic inspired this haiku.)

Laughter

cousins' laughter
as they open presents —
the best gift

(Mr. D's cousins are here visiting,
and since we haven't seen them since last year,
there was a belated present exchange tonight.
The picture is from the summer, obviously,
but the winter goofball spirit looks much the same.
We are all feeling quite blessed.)

Everywhere We Looked

We got a lot of phone calls during the recent storms. Family and friends in warmer or less snowy places were seeing the news and wondering how we were faring. It was hard to explain, even with plenty of pictures, how all-encompassing this storm was. No matter what time of day or night, no matter where we looked, there was snow. Coming down, blowing, drifting, coming down again.

1. Look Up, 2. Still Falling, 3. White on White on White, 4. Near Miss

The tree limb that came down didn't do any damage. It's a street tree, so the Township Arborist and his crew will be dealing with it. But there are many larger trees that have to be taken care of first, so we'll probably be looking at this reminder of the surprising burden of snow for a while yet.


Here's our boy Mr. D, bravely standing under the back door tree while his Tama tries to lighten its snowload by gently shaking it. I'm not sure how many inches of snow we ultimately got. But it took us two days to shovel our cars out. And there's no telling when the gate to the backyard will swing open again. It's been wild... and wonderful.

(Thanks to all the folks
who called to check in...
so far, so good!)