Christmas Eve

This is how Larry's family spent Christmas eve after Church and opening gifts.

December 11, 2007 Snow

Phil took these pics while on his way to and from finals. The top 4 are of the lakefront. The bottom pic is in the UWM area.

December 11, 2007

We got snow, again. The first snow this season came the night before Thanksgiving. I drove through about 10 miles of the 'tunnel' snow anyone who has ever driven in Winter at night would recognize.

The next morning Cassie and I came back to the East side of the state through the most beautiful hilly patchworked white-on-white landscape I could have imagined. There were still clouds to the East. There was just enough snow to cover the ground, but not the color of the field beneath it. God must have had 5 gallons of white paint and 2 drops of all the other colors of this world that morning.

Most of the snow was gone on our return trip. Again, beautiful hilly fields and rock of variations of browns, golds and greens.

Above is a picture I took today of the height of the snow out side of our front door. The stoop is a step down from the storm door threshold. The snow is no longer a step down from the storm door threshold.
I don't clean up the flower beds in the fall. I leave the cone flowers, wild sunflowers and the Japanese lanterns for the birds who over winter. It also defines the walkway, should I wish to shovel it.
The blue spruce was given to Cassie when she was a preschooler by her Uncle Brian for Audubon day. That was the only year it was shorter than her. The light pole behind the top of the tree is about 15 feet behind it. I took the picture about 15 feet from it and about 8 feet above ground level. Do the math to figure out the height of the tree.
Above is the view outside of my front door. Click on the brush to the forefront to see the Winter colors of the Nanking cherry bush against the needles of the neighbor's spruce (?) trees.

Below is a view of the power pole without a bunch of utility guys in the yard. I was able to push open the porch storm door just enough to take this pic. Maybe someone should shovel the porch? Noooo who am I kidding. It will melt in April.

I love the subtle color contrasts of the trees in the neighbor's yard. Summer has so much intensity that the small visual differences are overwhelmed. Click on the pic and you should see the snow flakes falling from the sky.

Larry came home from work about an hour before I took this pic. Phil came home about 4 hours before him. You can see it is a snow just around the freeze point by comparing the snow on the cars.