Home in the Snow

Christmas in Maine was magically wonderful.  Now that we are back at the farm it seems like a dream.  We arrived at Eric and Annie's lovely home Sunday night at dinner time.  Annie's brother Tom Henry, his wife Julie, her mother, Carol, and their kids, Zeke (6), and Charlotte (6 months), had arrived the day before.  We quickly settled in to a comfy Christmas scene, with fabulous food and lots of it.  Annie made the traditional Swedish Christmas drink, Yule Glug, loaded with raisins, almonds, cinnamon sticks, red wine, whiskey and vodka.  OH, it was so good.  We spent Monday getting ready for Christmas morning, between walks, eating delicious food, drinking coffee, drinking Yule Glug, wrapping presents, shopping for more presents, playing outside, playing with dogs and cats, and basically relaxing and having fun.  I had not spent Christmas with Eric's family in four years when they were living in San Jose, California.  Since then they have moved to Dallas, Texas, for a couple of years when Eric got a promotion to work for National Boy Scouts.  I never saw the Dallas Palace but heard a lot about it.   Eric now heads up the Pine Tree Council in Portland, Maine, a seven hour drive from the farm.  There was no way I was going to miss Christmas again.  In a few short years Hannah and Luke will be grown and there will be no Santa Claus and a mad rush down the stairs for the stockings.  I loved every minute.  We spent Christmas Day opening an avalanche of presents, eating more food, drinking more Glug, playing with dogs and cats, riding Eric's Ural motorcycle, sledding on his massive front lawn, and watching Annie prepare another fabulous meal.  I spent as much time as I possibly could catching up with Eric and the kids, and chatting with AJ and Mia about work, chaplaincy, and all kinds of nonsense.  It was a beautiful thing.  Wednesday morning we packed up and headed back to the farm with a serious storm forecast for the northeast.   Traffic was terrible, with people travelling home on the Mass. Pike, and dark, gray clouds gathering in the cold.  The snow started as we pulled in to the farm and greeted Loren who was doing some evening chores.  It dropped a foot or so as of Thursday afternoon.  Today I'm waxing kind of emotional over the wonderful time we had, and imagining Luke and Zeke going up and down the front lawn on their sleds.