A very happy Christmas -

Thanks to a diligent gate agent in West Palm Beach, FL (who worked over an hour last Sunday to re-book L & D after their flight home was canceled) and their trusty Dodge pickup, we were all together for Christmas.

Yesterday morning I looked out the window, early, thinking it would be nice to see a blank spot across the street where the truck had been parked since the 16th.

The truck was gone. Just to make sure, I went to the front door and confirmed that a large clear spot was all that marked where it had been.

L & D got in from Florida, via a non-stop from Atlanta, late Tuesday night. Yesterday they came by about 4:30, to give me and some Christmas presents a ride to I & Z's. As we got farther north, farther from main streets, road conditions got worse - but thanks to their 4-wheel drive (the old-fashioned kind that requires the driver to hop out of the cab and twitch something on the hubcaps into position) we made it safely.

Three other friends made it over to the house for an evening visit. People talked, or played with the latest Wii apps, or knitted, or embroidered. When the visitors went home, I prevailed on those still up to listen to the late Alan Maitland on CBC, reading my favorite "ghost" story.

Although it rained yesterday afternoon and the prediction was for the great meltoff to begin, there was also a caveat: "Perhaps an inch or two of new snow overnight."

We woke up to at least an inch of new snow, then watched as more fell - and fell - and fell. After stockings and presents, L & D headed north to another family gathering, and the rest of us kicked back for a peaceful Christmas day. Eventually, the snow stopped, turned to rain, and we even got a brief interval of blue sky before the sun set. L & D gave me a ride home on their way back to Vashon.

There are still piles of snow everywhere - especially on the main routes, where snowplows have pushed up ridges that narrow the lanes, but the forecast is - finally - for all the snow to melt in the next couple of days.