Four Days of 2016

Hello there!  How is your year going so far?  We've had ourselves some snow and ice!  It began on the day after New Years - that icy cold snow that comes down in tiny flakes.  Then last night we heard little ice cubes hitting the roof and our glass skylights all night.  It's supposed to warm up later today and the sun is shining so I think it will be melting.  But school was closed today, much to our DIL Kristi's chagrin.  :-)

Do you see the little ice cubes sprinkled over the snow?

The pond and creek are iced over.. but the water is still flowing, thank goodness.

Here is the pond.. the fish seem to do fine under this!

See the frozen creek?

Simba is catching some sunshine.. see his ear on the left?  He had a run-in with something and it got chewed up pretty bad.  Poor guy.  It might be the black and white cat that has been trying to horn in on the food Kristi give's Simba.  Last night I asked her to take out some ham scraps for him and he loved it.

Kristi just told me that Simba was standing on a rock in the middle of the waterfall to drink the water there since his bowl had frozen up.  I quickly grabbed my camera to get this shot.  Dayle got all the shots above for me.

These are taken through the window so as not to frighten Simba.

Slurp slurp.

I got the second pair of pink booties done, now to make a blue pair for a co-worker of my son Travis whose wife just gave birth to their first child, a boy.  :-)

Our older son Shawn and his family had driven down to Los Angeles to spend Christmas with his wife's family - so we had a dinner and exchanged gifts on New Year's Day.  The boys were having a great time, our little guys love their older cousins a LOT.

My son announced to us that they are moving to California to be closer to Beth's family.  So, I guess 2 of my children and their families will be choosing to live close to their in-laws and far away.  I am glad that our youngest son's wife's parents live here.  I have to say I've been blue for days and it brought back the severe sadness that I experienced when my daughter moved across the country to Ohio and took my only two granddaughters away.  But I guess it's a fact of life and many people rarely see their children and grandchildren.  

On Sunday my wonderful sister Denise came to visit and brought the quilts she'd made for our grandsons - Caleb and Hayden.  Aren't they fun and bright?  She is so nice!

Denise and one of the quilts.. she loves sewing and making quilted things.  She might teach me how.  

After a nice cozy day by the fire yesterday we settled in to watch the first episode of Downton Abbey - the last season.  I'm so sad it will be over after a few short weeks.  Dang it.  

It started out with a fox hunt.. ohhh.. cool.. 

Yesterday we took the tree down and are packing up the other ornaments and decorations.  We took down the colored lights in the dining room but are leaving up the white fairy lights over the window to brighten up the long dark evenings.  Dayle started a fire to help warm the house and with it and the pellet fire stove we kept cozy.  

And so.. it goes.  As the world turns.. the ups, the downs.. life.  I hope your year is going well so far!  ((hugs)), Teresa :-)