Sometime during the winter season we get a cold winter blast of some sort. We might get a little snow with it too. Over the weekend we got the beginning of this year's winter cold blast. They say it is the coldest it's been since 1990 and may last as long as it did then (10 days). I remember the 1990 cold blast. It started during the annual Christmast party at the ad agency where I was working. I went down to the front door early (about 12:30pm) to wait for Dennis to come get me. I waited, and waited and waited. He was working about 30 minutes south of where I worked at the time. There wasn't one speck of snow where he worked but 5 minutes down the road he ran into about 6 to 12 inches of snow and snarled traffic. About 4 hours later he finally showed up. He had spent most of that time inching his way towards my office and hoping he wouldn't pee his pants! He parked the car and we went out to eat. We finally got home about 9pm that evening. We took our dog Duke out for a walk in the fluffy white snow. That fluffy white stuff hung around Seattle for almost a week.
For those family members who live in the snow on a regular basis you might find this odd, but what you have to understand about Seattle is that it doesn't take much snow to bring the whole city to a standstill. We just can't handle it. We only got the amount of snow you can see on the top of the ornament I hung in our tree outside but it is COLD here. The weather has been in the high to low twenties down to the upper teens overnight. It is supposed to stay that way through to the weekend with more snow possible late Tuesday early Wednesday. I love the snow but not the cold!
On a completely different note, I thought it would be fun to do a before and after shot of our living room. Every year I take all the family photos off our fireplace mantle and put up all my Christmas decorations. (It's a great chance to dust the mantle.) I love my fireplace mantle. It stretches across the whole west end of the living room. Usually it is completely full of family pictures. I guess I should have left those up to give the full effect but that's what is piled on the floor in the before picture. Over the years I have collected lots lots of little figures and knick-knacks that I pull out to put on the mantle. The last couple of years a company Dennis does business with buys us a huge, beautiful wreath that fits well on the wall. The three stockings on the left side of the fireplace are the boys' and were made by Oma after each of them were born. (She did this for all the grandkids and daughters-in-law, but not her sons.) The white one on the right is the one she made for me from my wedding dress fabric (she made my wedding dress). The one next to it is a cross-stitch I did for Dennis which replaced the ratty one he had from when he was a kid. (Oma got better at stockings as a grandmother.)
We usually go with Oma & Opa to get a tree (which I think I mentioned on my blog last year at this time), but we didn't this year. Instead we got a free tree from the lot where Tucker is working for the season. His boss gives one to all of his employees--super nice! I love pulling out the boxes with the ornaments. I pull them all out and the kids put them on the tree. There are so many that have such lovely memories attached. As I pull out each one, the wonderful, funny and occasionally sad memories just poor in. I love the feelings that come with decorating the tree!
Underneath the wreath on the mantle (and in the close-up on the left--although the wreath is the ratty K-Mart one we use until we get the nice one) is my favorite nativity display of all time. The Nativity is the same one we had when I was a child. It is a very simple cardboard creation from the 50s. I don't know exactly what it is about it that I like so much. Perhaps it is the way the artist used lighting to emphasize each little part--especially the lighting around Joseph & Mary and the baby Jesus (although you really can't tell that from my amatuer photography). Or the way all the pieces come together to form a beautiful 3-D scene. Or perhaps it is just the childhood memories that are associated with it. Whatever it is I love it. I my mom told me that she bought one of these cardboard nativities for each of my older siblings when they were young. You could buy them for a whole 42 cents as I recall. How I came to get one of my own is a story for another time.
So while it may be cold outside, the feelings are warm and cozy and full of nostalgia inside!
Continuing with the theme of my previous post, brrr it's still cold! Yesterday (Wednesday 12/17), the Seattle School District in a knee-jerk reaction to the dire weather predictions for Wednesday, cancelled school. Sadly, they were left with egg on their faces (which is what you get when you beleive the weather forecasters here who couldn't get it right even if they looked out the window!) For while it was bitterly cold, the expected snowfall failed to appear. It DID snow everywhere BUT Seattle in all directions. Kind of like a reverse snow globe with the globe over Seattle and the snow falling all around. It left everyone scratching their heads in wonderment. 
