No way – December 3rd?

So, like Christmas is only [does math in head – harder than it looks on paper, trust me] 22 days away? Hah! My shopping is about done and I only have to do our cards, wrap all the gifts, bake roughly 7,543 cookies, go help cut our tree, decorate the entire house, put the lights outside, help cook for the celebration at the in-laws, mail some gifts, clean the house for company – blah blah blah. Piece of cake. I love Christmas!

Anyway – here on the old blog, I am starting Christmas early with some celebratory giveaways. This is my first one, and it ends tonight at midnight, with the winner being chosen tomorrow afternoon. If you mention the contest on your blog, Twitter or Facebook, you get an extra entry – but please leave an additional comment for each one so you get all the entries you should. Enter! A new giveaway will begin tomorrow.

I thought I would share a few photos with you this fine morning – all from our Thanksgiving trip to my sister and brother in law’s in Massachusetts. If you follow my Twitters, you know it was up in the air if we could even go – the weather was horrendous when we got up last Tuesday – 6 inches of heavy, wet slippery snow with more piling down. About noon it was starting to taper off, so we went for it. Not fun would be the best way to describe it – alternating thick snow and pouring rain for the first 4 hours, but we got there just fine.

After a lovely time, we headed back home on Sunday under fair skies that turned to something far less fair after about 3 hours. See where the road kind of disappears between the hill in this photo? See that foggy looking stuff? That was snow which became progressively thicker as we went along, mingling with sleet, freezing rain, cats, dogs and taxicabs, pitchforks and hammer handles. We saw 6 accidents over about a 10 mile stretch of the worst of it. I don’t have photos of any of that – Larry has some rather strenuous objections to my snapping photos while he is trying to keep the van from flying off the road and over an icy precipice – just this one that hinted at the trouble to come.
Most days during our visit, my sister and I walked a couple of their dogs. I caught this shot of the Nashua River where it runs through an old Army base near where they live.And this is one of my favorite images from the whole trip. It was on the way there – somewhere near Springfield MA. The rain was finally ending and though the setting sun was behind us, I did manage to catch it in the rearview mirror and in the reflections down the side of the van.

Have a great day and if you haven’t already, go leave a comment and enter the giveaway.