This is our first holiday in our home; Our first time welcoming some of our dear family into our cozy nest and celebrating these precious days with them.  It feel so good, so right.  This morning the boys and I went for a walk before the obligatory bathroom/dishes clean up I would inevitably attend to do before my folks arrived.  It was still snowing, the sun just a glow on the horizon.  It was the kind of snow that was so thick and wet if you weren’t careful and so much as bumped up against a branch or tree you would send down an arsenal of snowballs down the neck of your shirt, and in my case that would mean sending them onto the noggin of my youngest strapped onto my back.  It was a well insulated, woolen covered noggin but none the less it took us by surprise and then made me giggle… oh poor third children.

I watched the boys build a snow man all on their own. We decked him out with cranberries in leu of coal and Rowan deemed him missy redeyes.  Poor girl, I can relate.  We tracked our old friend, the porcupine, deep into the woods noting nibbles on bark here and scat there and hoping, just hoping for a stray quill to keep.  No such luck.  The boys scurried up a few trees hoping to find the winter home of a little furry fellow.  We sat quiet in the bit of sun the world had to offer listening to the cheep cheep wah wah wah of the winter hardy chickadees.  When toes got cold and the babe on my back began to stir we headed back up the hill toward the warmth and coziness of the fire.  My oldest is becoming quite the expert in tending it, given that I can let go and trust.  When coaxing the ever tiring three-year old up one last hill I looked out at this beauty of a sugar coated landscape and noted carefully on the foggy scribe in my brain that this, this is why we are here.  This opportunity to breathe with the trees and wander with the animals.  This chance to learn from the falling snow and the hardening ice.  I do so feel at home here on the side of this hill.

With the business of preparations behind us, there is nothing but joy to look forward to.  That is if I can keep these wild boys at bay until the whole crew arrives.  

Happy Holidays to you and yours!!! May your days be merry and bright!