Snowy Day

The best possible scenario occurred today. School was cancelled. And Monday is the make-up day. Why is this wonderful? Because everyone gets a three-day weekend! Initially, the kids were going to be off on Monday while the teachers had a professional development day. Now we all take time off. Unfortunately, this is the weekend that Eli is in Florida at a Coast Guard conference. I have a three day weekend, and I have to spend it alone! Well, I'll be with Elsie, but you know what I mean.

We got out this morning early before the snow started coming down, mostly to take Elsie to meet J's son. I left her there for about 45 minutes while I ran to the grocery store. By the time I was at the check-out line, the heavens had opened up. When I picked Elsie up, we stood in the falling snow for a minute and she didn't know what to make the weird stuff that wasn't rain (she loves to be rained on...weird child).

Anyway, today the Christmas wreath finally came off the door. Yeah, I know. It's almost Valentine's Day. I kept meaning to take a picture of it, but never had the chance. And the one time I did remember (about two weeks ago), the camera didn't have a memory card in it. Ugh. So, it stayed up so that I could record it for posterity. So, without further ado, here is my Christmas wreath:



I didn't cut all those pieces...just the red ones. At some point I bought a pack of 1"-square heavy paper in the scrapbook aisle at Hobby Lobby or Michael's (could have been YEARS ago) in primary colors and in bright colors. On the night of the SEC championship game in early December, I sat down and was determined to make a wreath for the door from materials I already had, so I laid out a rough circle of green squares and taped them all together, and then layered more on top and taped and taped and taped. I'm most proud of the 3D bow. I engineered this bow design back in 2001 when I lived with Daphne in Austin and I made a paper wreath for our apartment door, but I traced my hand a million times for that one. So, here's my beautiful bow:



And, while I was outside snapping pictures of the wreath before it got "recycled", I turned and snapped a picture from our front porch facing toward the pool. This was still early in the snowfall (3 hours, maybe?), so in the end, by the time the sun went down the whiteness was opaque.



So, now Elsie is in bed. I'm waiting for the Opening Ceremonies in Vancouver. I'm going to make a cup of hot tea and cuddle with the felines and my Sports Illustrated Olympic preview issue. Stay warm!

Cheers!