Winter Wonderland

While Blizzard Warnings reach across the Midwest and cancellations scroll across the bottom of the TV, I looked into my magical collection of scanned photos and will share these snow photos in hope you remember snow days of your youth.

These two top photos were from the winter of 1961-62. It brings back memories of snow pants, boots with buckles, mittens that didn't bend too well (but kept the wet out), snow forts, making snow angels, we built tunnels and dug paths all over our yard on the farm. I remember thinking we were building homes for animals to take shelter in. We usually had our cocker spaniel Blondie with us and were entertained by simple things in life. I remember one year, building a huge snowman with our neighbors the Hildrings and our Dad's got into it, as the balls for the snowman were so large we had to get the tractor and loader to raise the balls on top of each other. That snowman survived most of the winter at the top of the hill in front of our house, alas no photos of it, only in our memories.

This photo was taken by my sister, Deb, the morning of Steve's funeral last year on December 26, it shows our front yard and view from the house. If you click on the photo to enlarge it, you'll see a bird flying across the sky in the clouds, in the small version it appears as a dark dot above the trees. We got a lot of snow last Christmas and roads were full of snow and ice but what a beautiful morning view.

Christmas waves a magic wand over this world,
and behold, everything is softer and more beautiful.
- Norman Vincent Peale