I love the winter months.  I enjoy staying in my flannel pajamas and fuzzy slippers all day.  This morning we had a rare winter snowfall in Charlotte.  I woke up at 5:15 to the phone ringing.  I dread early morning phone calls because I always think that someone died or was injured.  In this case, though, it was Union County calling to tell parents that schools in the county were closed due to inclement weather.  This may be inclement weather for Charlotte, but if we were still living in Maryland there definitely would have been school today. 

Instead, we all slept in snuggled up under the covers.  But, before the sun melted all the glorious white stuff blanketing our front yard and our roof, I wanted to take some pictures.  Isn’t it beautiful?

Of course I frightened off all my neighbors by walking outside in my slippers and pjs under a big ugly coat and my hair pulled back in a headband. All the crows flew away.  I had to walk flat footed across the driveway so that I didn’t slip on the ice, and believe me, there was a coating of ice that was difficult to see this morning.

I was standing in the road for this shot.  “Hi neighbors!  Don’t run me over, okay?”  — “Get out of the middle of the road woman, and besides, you’re not dressed for public viewing!”

Alright, I’m out of the road standing in my ice covered driveway instead.  Hey, see that flag over the front door?  My Big Bear hung that for me 2 weeks ago.  It has a snowman on it.  Cute, eh?  My contribution to external home landscaping.

Isn’t he adorable?  He’s going to get a big kiss when I walk in the back door.  Why?  Because he is looking out the window making sure that I don’t slip on the ice and break my head like Humpty Dumpty. 

Isn’t this a pretty picture?  This is my front yard looking over into my nice neighbor’s driveway.  (Notice I said “nice?”  That’s because he is our dentist and I have to say that or he might pull out my teeth the next time I go in for a cleaning)  I might just use this picture as a reference for a painting.  As a matter of fact, I might just turn on my iPod, listen to some country music, and plant my hiney in front of my easel today and paint.  It’s about dang time I get back to the canvas and today’s snowfall may have been just the inspiration I needed.

This is our back yard. I love to see the snow between the trees, and we’ve got lots of trees.  As a matter of fact, when we look out the windows from the back of the house it looks like we live in a treehouse.  I really like it here.  It’s quiet and peaceful.

Check out that log rack that my Big Bear built with the help of 2 little munchkins – Matthew and Glen.  I might just have to post those pictures of the log rack being built if I can find them.  I may have lost them when my computer crashed last month.  But, still, check out all that wood!  We’re burning it up like crazy here.

Aaaaaaaah, much better.  Now my toesies are nice and toasty.  Did I mention that Big Bear starts our fires with a blow torch?