It's been many years since I woke up to a window like this. Temperatures have been in the single digits here in the great white north.  

We were walking from the car to the restaurant tonight and Brendan says, "Hey Daddy, look!  I'm a factory!"  "I am too!" the little girls piped in.  They were blowing with all their might, sending great smoke stacks of steamy breath into the frigid air and intermittantly laughing hysterically. 

I grew up here. I shouldn't freak out over single digits. I think you acclimate though.  And then stop being acclimated when you leave.  But I promised myself I would not be one of those tiresome bloggers who write about the weather.  

(insert long pause while I think of something else to say….)

Fortunately there IS a lot of wonderful to share because cold as it is outside the house, the inside held every one of my children. All of them.  Together in one place.  Do you know it has been four long years since every one of them has been in the same room? I am so very grateful I did not know four years ago how long it would be. 

We have been working diligently to finish last minute tasks – assembling favors, stitching slippers, gathering supplies. Mostly though, I am just soaking them all up.