Christmas trees and snow

We cut our Christmas trees Friday night. Here are Pat and Nancy helping Terry cut their tree.

Pat and Nancy hold their tree while Terry cuts

And here is our tree.

Cutting our tree

More friends arrived by 5:00, and we drove to Lake Geneva in three cars to see the lights at the Grand Geneva Inn.

After that, we went to Sharon to see the horse carriage parade. We didn’t arrive until 6:45. By the time we had something to eat, we had to proceed to the end of the block (Sharon truly is four corners) for the parade. The horses got a late start. We passed the time naming the tunes of the Christmas music that was playing. Nancy was very good at it, being both a musician and a church pianist. One that puzzled me was “For the Beauty of the Earth.” Nancy and Hilda sang the words they could remember. Such a beautiful song. I recognized one that Nancy didn’t. I finally placed it as “The Boar’s Head,” a song that always reminds me fondly of my days at Reed, where the boar’s head is traditionally carried around the holiday feast while singing this very song. In fact, I recently got an email invitation to this year’s festivities, which I deleted.

Since last year’s pictures of the parade were so bad, I will spare you. There were more miniature horses and fewer standard horses this year. The Percheron team was in the parade again. They are large, noble animals. Nancy told me that her father started farming with Percherons.

We are getting lots of pullet eggs now, both brown and blue.

Blue eggs, brown eggs, and double-yolked eggs (the big ones)

Most are tiny; a few are extra-large. Most of these have double yolks. Here are the two eggs I fried for Saturday breakfast. Getting an egg with a double yolk makes you feel like it’s going to be your lucky day.

Double-yolked egg in the pan with another pullet egg

Terry and I decorated our tree last night. Unpacking the ornaments brings back a flood of memories, some happy, some sad. Still, it is good to remember everyone who has given us ornaments over the years. The hand-made ones are particularly precious to me. Here is the picture with the flash.

And here it is without the flash.

We had our first snowfall today.

The backyard at 10:00 this morning

I’ll post more pictures soon showing the accumulation by the end of the day.

I had another double yolk egg this morning, this time hard boiled with my bran muffin.

The hard-boiled version of a double-yolked egg with a bran muffin

The snow should be stopping soon. Terry and I are about to go out and shovel in the dark. That should be an adventure.