Freezing My Ears Off

Not to mention toes and fingers and everything in between.

It's so hard to think about writing anything right now.  Just such a hard time at Christmas.  But the weather has been quite a distraction.

I'll post just some pictures that I took last week in no certain order and probably can't even remember where or why I took them.

It snowed off and on for a while last week but was supposed to end Friday morning.  Instead it came down hard for hours, several unexpected inches.  We still got to go to the Nutcracker in Seattle Friday night though because there was no snow between Snoqualmie and there once we got out of town.

 This is when I first noticed it.  No one told me - it's very quiet!

The second little blizzard covered the balcony and blew over the chairs.  Stella/Molly briefly investigated because there were birds hopping around eating the seeds I left out.

Pretty soon she was back in front of the fire licking her paws.

Emily and Ryan's deck.  On the table is the pottery bunny I brought from Montgomery almost completely covered up.

 The steps to my apartment on the right.  So far, so good.  No ice.  It's just hard to convince me to walk in that much snow.

The first day I drove, I had to clear the windshield.  My neighbor had worked on clearing all the snow and ice off the first day, but this accumulated again.  I opened the garage door, and the first thing I saw were the old Alabama tags.  They made a perfect snow pusher.  It didn't take scraping because it was so fluffy, just a little pushing.

I was really feeling sorry for myself the morning the car doors would not open.  Ryan said to pour hot water over the keyholes, and I Googled it also and ended up taking a pitcher of hot salt water and a lighter to heat up my key if needed.  The water did the trick.  Although it was hard, I feel like I made one more step in getting used to doing things on my own.  

We spent a lot of time inside naturally, and I found Emily and Graysen making cookies one day when I went over.  Graysen did not want to eat the cookies at all - not even a taste.  She just wanted to make them and roll the dough in sprinkles.

Vintage cookie cutters.  I remember these from when I was not much older than Graysen.

Emily is also wearing one of her grandmother's aprons.  I'm not sure where the flower came from.

Katherine certainly has no qualms about eating the cookies though and stands and yells kee-kee in the direction of the cookie plate.

 My little Christmas.  It was hard even opening the boxes, and there is not much room, but I did a few things that made me happy.

A family joke.  I had a nurse come over Sunday from my insurance company for a routine visit, and she had me do memory tests and dementia tests in addition to blood pressure, etc.  Once when I left the room, I came back to see her standing and looking at the mantle, but she was nice enough not to mention this.

Just a table for the girls to look at.  No particular order or sentimentality to it.

The house on Steller Way.  I love the mantle.

Finally, 3 too-long videos of our first excursion into the snow.  Excuse my lack of enthusiasm and comments.  The girls were thrilled, and that's all that matters.