Our World - The cats' views

Our new couch (a place to sleep)

 



Front yard (where the squirrels are)

 

Food and water (second only soft bed)

 

Back yard (more squirrels and birds)

 

And an occasional neighborhood visitor

 

Sky Watch - Christmas morning and before

Christmas morning

 and sunset December 23

Header Challenge - Boxes

 

The day after Christmas is know as "Boxing Day" in England and that or the more generic "boxes" is the header theme. I will leave it to Mac to give the official description of Boxing Day in the UK. But part of the tradition involves boxes of food and gifts for the less well off. The same happens here. The US Marines collect and distribute Toys for Tots. The Boy Scouts in our area do a food drive the week before Thanksgiving. We support these efforts and occasionally drop off food at the local community food bank. And so a box of boxes (and some cans) of food were dropped off at the food bank earlier this week in honor of the British tradition of Boxing Day!

 

Boxes also played a part in our own family tradition of exchanging gifts. We are not traveling this Christmas, so with the help of the US Postal Service boxes of gifts were sent to our family scattered across this USA. We also received some boxes from across the USA, which were put under the tree. They have now been open and we are enjoying the contents. Thanks all. The rest of the post is just having fun with camera and gift boxes we have to use on a future Christmas.
 

Karma Kitty and boxes

 

Shadow boxes

Nested boxes

Nested lids

Our World - Window shopping in Frederick

List is done - can you find the items?

A sleigh ride for penguins? 

A little chocolate ? 

 

An upscale kiddie car?

 

Or perhaps some inserts in your skin?

Sky Watch - The week before Christmas

Header Challenge - Christmas preparations

 

Twas the week before Christmas and all through the house,
Boxes have been put away and there's space to walk.

 

 Marianne has decorated the mantle and over the TV,

 

  
While I finished the railing and the tree.

 

 Charlie Brown's tree is on a kitchen counter,
While Karma Kitty watches from above the buffet.

 

 

 The presents have been wrapped, except for one or two
and sent by post to places afar. There's Jersey and Texas,
Phoenix, West Virginia, Colorado and Carolina too.

 

We will spend a quiet Christmas at home this year
though long distance calls we expect to hear.

 

The Christmas puzzle has been retrieved
And I expect we will try to assemble it Christmas eve.

 

Our World - Icy with snow

It has been colder with more snow than usual for December in our world this year.

Sky Watch - Winter skies

This week, the clouds rolled in

brought us some snow,

then cleared and left a half moon above.

Header Challenge - Cloud formations

 

This post is not so much about cloud formations as it is about what forms in the clouds this time of year in our part of the world. Sunday we got about 8 inches (20 mm) of snow. Tuesday we got another few inches. Our winter weather is determined by which way the wind blows. If it blows from Canada we get cold and sometimes the moisture makes it across the mountains and we get snow. If the wind blows from Florida, we get warm. This time the wind blew from Canada all the way to Texas and the Gulf of Mexico, picked up a load of moisture and did a U-turn around the mountains and north up the coast. These storms left slippery roads and closed airports over a wide area. Some power outages in the DC, Maryland and Virginia area were caused by falling branches.
 

Morning of December 8 just starting to snow

 

 Afternoon, snow everywhere

More snow Tuesday

And the clouds break ranks in time for sunset