BLOGMAS DAY 12 -- SNOW AND OTHER THINGS

 Hello, friends!  Welcome back to Blogmas although I have not been very good keeping up with it.  But we all do what we can and I've been very busy.

Thank you for all of your good wishes.  I am feeling MUCH better.  In fact, I am back to myself.  I am feeling secure that I had neither COVID-19 nor the flu.  It was probably a bad cold or allergies.  If it were either of the former, I would not have gotten over it in 4 days.

For the first time in 1,001 days, we had snow in Philly.  Well, measurable snow.  We have had flurries, but nothing that stayed on the ground.  On Wednesday, we had snow.  Lots of snow.  It may not sound like a lot to my northern friends, but we got over 6 inches.  Our average here is 1 inch or less.

Wednesday morning there was a beautiful sunrise.  I was up so I grabbed my camera and took a couple of pictures of it.  The sky was so pretty with the golds and reds.

Who knew that just a few hours later it would look like this?

The snow started around 2:00 p.m.  I even took a little video of it.

About now I can hear all the laughter from my friends to the north in Canada.  But hey, I'm not used to snow.  An inch is a lot to me.

As the day went on it got worse and worse.  These pictures were taken around 4:00 p.m.  I was so thankful for a warm and dry home.

The snow was blowing so much that it was almost going sideways.  Here is another short video taken from my front window with you guys in mind.

Then I went to the back windows to see how the yard was doing.  What a mess!  But at least things were not blown over like it sometimes is when the wind is strong.

I can always tell how badly it is snowing by looking at the holly tree.  Yes, it really is a tree.  So huge.  Over 20 feet tall.  But the leaves are so dark green that I can see the white snow against it.

And another video.  Last one, I promise.

I had a COVID test scheduled for 7:00 p.m. Wednesday night.  At 5:00 p.m. I called the pharmacy and told them there was no way I could get there.  They said they understood and I could go online to reschedule.  There was no way I was going to go out, clean off the car, and make my way over two miles to get to a drive through.  Also, by this time I was feeling much better and had no symptoms at all anymore.

Because it was so gray, I wore these Christmas socks on Wednesday for our snow day.  They were gray too, but with Christmas lights and saying "Merry and Bright".  That's what I needed that day.  Merry and Bright.

Yesterday I went to the back door to get pictures of our yard.  It is so cold!  I didn't stay outside long.  Here is an overview of our yard.  I see that the birdfeeder is empty.  I'll have to get more seed for that.

Although there is a lot of snow on the table, it is much less than it was the day before.

And I don't think I will be sitting on this bench anytime soon.

The other day our fireplace stove stopped working.  It wouldn't turn on at all.  We depend on it quite a bit because it is drafty in our front room.  But looking back we have had it for over 10 years.  Probably about 12 years.  So it really doesn't owe us anything.

My sister gave it to us for Christmas one year.  Poor old thing.  It sure gave us a lot of pleasure and warmth.  But it will be on the curb for trash pickup today.

So Joe and I decided that we would get a new one and make it our Christmas gift to each other.  He searched online, found a good deal and ordered it.  It came yesterday.  We had quite a time unpacking it and setting it up.  It was certainly a joint effort.  But here it is.

All those internet cables!  I want to erase them, but then the internet would not work.  The new stove is so pretty.  We haven't turned it on yet.  I have to learn how to work it.  But today for sure.  It is about 1 inch taller than the old one and 2 inches wider.  But it is not as deep so I can't decorate it as I did the older one.  It's just deep enough for the internet and the phone.  But it's so pretty.

For dinner last night I had pork chops.  I had put them into the refrigerator to defrost two days ago and then didn't use them.  So I had to use them last night.  I took the zucchini I had, sliced it up, added some sliced onions and some mushrooms and cooked it all up in olive oil and butter.  I was tired of mashed potatoes, so I made some baking powder biscuits for our starch.  Everything was so good.

And now I need to go and start my day.  I have so much to do before Christmas and it is coming FAST!

Have a wonderful day, everyone.  I hope to do some blog reading later today.  Please forgive me for not getting around to that lately.  Life is taking over.  See you soon.

Kathy