"One Christmas was so much like another, in those years around the sea-town
now and out of all sound except the distant speaking of the voices I sometimes
hear a moment before sleep, that I can never remember whether it snowed for
six days and six nights when I was twelve or whether it snowed for twelve days
and twelve nights when I was six."

We had snow this week, as did many of you. It came quietly in the night
covering lawns and streets...Christmas lights and car fenders...it covered the
ashes of the homestead, maybe putting it to rest.

The past two weeks have been filled with a barrage of emotions..my house
became the center for contributions and well wishers..my kitchen table housed
discussions on how to put fragile lives back together. It was a learning
experience for all of us..how to share space...share chores.
But by Tuesday morning, Aaron and Karen and babies were packed up and they
drove off to Atlanta to spend Christmas with her family.

"Years and years ago, when I was a boy, when there were wolves in Wales, and
birds the color of red-flannel petticoats whisked past the harp-shaped hill,
when we sang and wallowed all night and day in caves that smelt like Sunday
afternoons in damp front farmhouse parlors."

It was still dark when they left...I surveyed the house before tackling the
cleaning job ahead of me. Here are a few of the things that I found (in
amazement!!)..banana peelings (under one of the beds), my alarm clock under the
mattress, ice cream sprinkles in every corner, my broom in the doll cupboard, two
dinosaurs (under the guest room pillows)...I also found tags from new clothing
that someone had donated to them, tissues under their pillows, empty baby
bottles in my kitchen..quietness.

I didn't have long to contemplate as there was much work to do..and Philip
was coming that same afternoon. By the time he arrived, there were very few
traces of the chaos that had consumed me (unless you look in the corners, or the
closets!!)

"Our snow was not only shaken from white wash buckets down the sky, it came
shawling out of the ground and swam and drifted out of the arms and hands and
bodies of the trees.."

We have spent the week toasting the solstice with sparklers out on the front
stoop...watching snow drift and swirl...shoveling (OK, Philip did the
shoveling!!)...bringing home the Christmas tree that had been abandoned at the curb by
the Lion's Club..it is lovely with festive lights. I only wanted colorful
lights this year, but all I had was white...so we hand painted all the twinkle
lights with a marker..it is beautiful. We have walked through the snow-filled
town, gone to the movies, opened gifts by candlelight, spent Christmas at
Jo's..it has been quiet and wonderful all at the same time.

"For dinner we had turkey and blazing pudding, and after dinner the Uncles
sat in front of the fire, loosened all buttons, put their large moist hands over
their watch chains, groaned a little and slept."

The winter season is here. Darkness comes early like a cold veil dropping
down from the heavens bringing us all inside to read or tell stories or spend
time together...to my children scattered all over the country, take time to
listen this winter for the sounds are so different..and take time to be.

Today's passages are from A Child's Christmas in Wales written by Dylan
Thomas. Before I close, I want to send out a heartfelt thank you to all the reader
who have sent notes and cards and books and baby sleepers...all was so
appreciated!

Take a moment to wave at your neighbor over your shovel, carry out some
groceries for someone at the store, invite friends over to dinner...spread peace in
your own home.

"Looking through my bedroom window, out into the moonlight and the unending
smoke-colored snow, I could see the lights in the windows of all the other
houses on our hill and hear the music rising from them up the long, steady falling
night. I turned the gas down, I got into bed. I said some words to the close
and holy darkness, and then I slept."

Love, Lou Ann