winter solstice

peace be to you on this winter solstice. i have not left the house all day today. it is dreadfully cold. below zero. it never even reached above zero all day. and the wind has just been gusting all day. i made cookies in anticipation of christmas dinner at our home on thursday. my grandmother's recipe. it's the cookies that my mother used to make for christmas. i did laundry, cleaned out 

half of my closet, and most pleasant of all - worked for several hours non-stop in my studio. i made a card to send to my new stamping friend, jean. i also am nearly finished on the little christmas board book that i'm making. yesterday i discovered a store called hobby lobby in a nearby town. i didn't even venture through a third of the store before i had found all i could afford on my trip so i had to leave. more treasures await my next visit. 

i'm so glad that i fed the birdies yesterday in anticipation of this cold weather. they were out there eating all day. poor jac, he really can't take the cold. he's my papillon and at only 6 lb. his tiny feet get so cold so fast. he has muttluks - dog booties like the sled dogs wear - but he absolutely HATES them. sometimes when i put them on him he will go outside and just lay down and refuse to walk at all. then i have to go out and get him. he is very stubborn. friday it wasn't so cold, but we got 13'' of snow in 12 hours. as a matter of fact, they even closed work until noon the morning commute was so bad. that worked well for me. i was able to get a lot done at home (cleaning up) before i went into work and then when i did go into work, there was hardly anyone there. so, i was finally able to get caught up in work that has been piling up for weeks! these pics are from friday, december 19th. the bird in the feeder is a junco. you can see jac's dilemma regarding the snow - it's much higher than he is tall. that didn't deter guinness though. he saw the kids next door playing and he just had to run over towards where they were. i had to run out there a few minutes later and "rescue" him as he couldn't make it back to the door by then. my boys!