Love the Snow Reason # 1 / Love the Snow Reason # 2

Devon got a SNOW DAY!

School and basketball were canceled today, so we were snowed in with Callie and the quads. Cold weather always manages to create good family times. I often hear people complain about the cold weather, but I love the snow for two reasons. On snow days we eat homemade chicken and noodles, make snow ice cream, drink steaming hot chocolate, and break out the boots/gloves/sleds. Family togetherness is the first reason I love the snow.

Miss Isabella wants to play. She is happiest on her belly.

We are getting lots of Samantha smiles these days. My mom says that means she is a happy baby.

Landon follows us around the room with his eyes. He is quiet but content. He is getting a dimple like Eric's in his chin.

Jackson is very entertaining at 6 AM. He has the cutest crooked grin and a contagious belly laugh! Jackson has a dimple in his cheek and his chin.

Callie is having fun sledding with Daddy. She keeps reminding me that it's "six minutes to Christmas, Mamaw!"

Tom is getting pretty good at working on the IPad while entertaining two babies at the same time. Now if he will just learn to use his feet to jiggle the other two in baby seats at the same time, Sarah and I can have a break.

Callie and Tony Trimming Number Two Tree



We are looking forward to Christmas. Pictured above is Christmas Tree Number Two. Tree Number One is rogue. It tripped me, sent me flying, and I body slammed it flat on the ground. The impact hurt like crazy, but made the tree much easier to put back in the box. Sleep deprivation can be dangerous!



Snow brings a gentle hush over everything. Today, I went out to clean the snow off the cars, and I savoured the silence. After a big snow, I used to enjoy going out to the barn early in the morning to feed the horses. It would be so quiet, except for the rhythmic crunching of the horses chewing their sweet feed. Periodically they would shake their manes and snort in appreciation, sending bursts of steam through their nostrils into the frigid air. Horses make me calm. They don't worry about much except eating and running. I used to sit on a bale of hay to watch them. It helped me get a perspective about the time I waste worrying.

One snowy morning, I was tossing flakes of hay to the horses just as the sun was coming up. Rays of light filled the barn loft and hit an old rusty cage. Instantly, it was transformed. The inside of the barn began to sparkle as if it were filled with thousands of twinkling diamonds suspended in mid-air. I was intrigued, so I put down the hay and climbed up the homemade ladder to get a closer look. What I discovered amazed me.

Undisturbed for years, spiders had labored to fill that entire cage with intricate webbing. When the sun peaked in through the barn slats, it warmed the air, causing moisture to condense in tiny droplets all over the webs. The rays of light hit the drops turning them into sparkling prisms of light. It was a beautiful work of art, and the horses and I were the only ones to see it. I watched until the sun moved past the cage, leaving no evidence of the former display of light.

What kind of God takes the time to create such incredible beauty that is rarely--if ever--seen? Even in the quiet of the morning, a web-filled cage shouted of His glory. I walked out of the barn onto the blanket of fresh snow that was making everything clean and new, and remembered.

When I was seven, my widowed grandmother drove all the way to Michigan for a visit. She was on a mission. She came up in my room to tell me how Jesus had died on the cross so I could live with Him forever in Heaven. Together, we knelt by my bed while I asked Jesus to make my heart clean from sin for all the times--past, present and future--that I would fall short of God's plan. In little girl fashion, I pictured God sending a heavy Michigan snow to make my dirty heart perfectly clean.

I have never been the same. That is the second reason that I will always love the snow.

"Wash me, and I will be whiter than snow." Psalm 51:7b


Thanks for praying,

Merry Christmas!