The sun returns. A look up the street this morning in 15 degree weather, but the sun is already melting the south-facing snow on the cars and roof line. By this afternoon, if we want, we'll be able to get in the car and travel around to take some more pics.

End of the day and end of the storm - the only glimpse of sunlight we saw today. For about 5 minutes there was a beautiful pink glow on the mountains, but I couldn't run from shoveling to grab my camera in time. Church for the first time since the St. Helens eruption, was cancelled completely tomorrow.

Another picture of Marolynn and the patio garden pot waiting for well, Spring. The first seed catalog arrived yesterday via mailman on foot courageously delivering the mail through the storm. With this much winter moisture, we're planting lots of veggies come Spring.

Here's the picture I meant to take of Marolynn under the apple tree. Loads of snow this morning, but it is supposed to start clearing this afternoon. We've already shoveled the walk and driveway, and also the neighbor's with a lot of help from folks across the street.

"Just go stand under the apple tree for a picture," I said. With her height, Marolynn just brushed one of the snow-laden branches and was rewarded with a back full of snow. Isn't winter fun!

When this snow quits, the main job other than shoveling out will be to get up on a ladder and free the canale (where the water drains off the roof) of ice and snow so that we won't have any more leakage than we already have. That will not be a fun job with this much snow.

So you think you saw a lot of snow here last week. The latest storm which began Thursday night (and is still snowing) left double the amount - 18 inches here. Thank goodness we were able to get home from Santa Fe on Thursday evening. They had 22 inches as of 6pm yesterday and probably another 6 to 8 inches last night. Needless to say, the interstate highways are all closed right now.

A nice picture of Jenny with Nora which we took on Christmas Day. During the days that they were here, Nora learned to proficiently roll across the floor and to grab for Christmas lights, ornaments, presents, whatever, and almost to get up on her knees and crawl. It's just about "have everything 3 feet off the ground" time.

More winter for the New Mexicans, just in case the visiting family didn't think they got enough. A harrowing ride down La Bajada hill coming home last evening from Santa Fe just before the interstates were closed again. The County is closed today, making it a 4-day weekend. More leaks in the roof making clear the necessity of re-roofing this spring. But the tub door was installed yesterday; the sun sets after 5pm again, and the seed catalogs start arriving next week, so life isn't too bad.

Everyone in this side of the family is in this photo; from left to right, Kurt and Carrie, Marolynn, Jonathan, Paul, Michael, Nora and Jenny. Good test for the delayed camera shutter - 10 seconds to scramble into the subject to be included in the picture.

The_family celebrated Christmas - everyone in the picture for Christmas dinner except Nora (napping) and the picture-taker. We all had a good, easy time spending much of the day opening the socks and gifts, and then having dinner with our original china and silver settings and Dorothy Griffin's green goblets.

It's really really beginning to look like Christmas. It snowed all night and then off and on all day; coming down hard when we left the temple this evening. It looks like about 10 inches around the place right now. What the heck, it snowed 16 inches in Cuba today, but only 6 in Santa Fe. I couldn't reach anyone at work so I believe they had a snow day today. Tomorrow is forecast to be much drier and we're looking forward to the family arriving as the day wears on. The contractor also promises to have the hall bath habitable (with a shower curtain rather than the tub door, for now) by the time everyone shows up.

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas. The storm forecast during the last five days is here now; I'm off from work, the Interstate over the divide has been closed all day, and the roads are beginning to ice up around here now. On the other hand I received precious time to help clean up and take care of errands before everyone arrives on Thursday, and I had a chance to try out a new 10mp SLR digital camera (this is picture #1) before really putting it to work during the Holidays. After looking at my brother's photo site, I decided that I had some catching up to do to reach his level of photography. I'll add the link to that site in this blog.

The 2006 Budget get-together of New Mexico cities and counties sponsored by the State Department of Finance is just over and Santa Fe County's budget document received the state outstanding budget award again this year, making five total awards in the five years I've been with the County. The award plaques and budget covers are on the wall in the picture behind me and my budget analyst, Sharon Ramirez. The rules for the award specify certain things that must be in the document and two days before the deadline for submitting it, I landed in the hospital, so the department brought the criteria sheets to me and I lay in the hospital bed marking them up for the submittal.

The Christmas mystery for us is where Bob and Shirley and Steve and Marian are for Christmas. Gifts will be 12th day of Christmas presents for them when we find out.