Some Updates

Autumn this year was unusually pretty. Most years everything goes straight from green to brown, from summer to what passes for winter. It usually doesn't stay very cold for long. Mom said it had reminded her of a mountain autumn.
For now, the weather is back to more typical temperatures. It actually reached over 50°F today.

The weather has been unusually cold here. It even snowed up the road last week! Folks here often have to wait until after New Years to get any snow at all.
The only year I can remember being colder here was the winter of 1999/2000. It had snowed lightly off and on for the week or so prior to Christmas. By Christmas Eve, we were not paying attention to the Y2K scare - we had an ice storm! The power outage it caused lasted from Christmas Eve until after New Years Day.
It was beautiful to look at. The sunlight on the ice that enameled everything sparkled and shimmered as the clouds went by. I remember picking up a small leaf that was encased in ice. Once the ice around it was split, I could see the lacy mold of the leaf's form in one piece.
It wasn't a bad winter and what happened later that year had kinda made up for it.

I don't have a whole lot to add to Mom's update post, except that getting ready for my brother's birthday was a lot of fun. His delight when he saw us setting up the decorations made me happy. :D When I was setting up the centerpiece on the kitchen table, he kept bouncing in to check on progress. It was so cute! This wasn't the first year we've decorated for his birthday, but I'm glad he liked it.
He was fairly bouncing off the walls the entire day. :)

I had also had a nice birthday. :) It was quiet and a lot of fun, just the way I like it. I really liked what my family gave me. Amongst the neat gifts my family gave me were the tiara in the slideshow, a pretty cosmetic box which my brother gave me, and the Celtic pendants my parents gave me are also beautiful. One has a cross on it, another has a horse surrounded by knotwork, and the last is a Celtic knot.
We watched a movie, hung out together and talked, and had some pizza.