Waking up with a yucky cold is no way to start the day. Nevertheless, there was enough snow on the ground to bring promise to everyone's day. While big snow flakes fell outside, Willow and I found an opportunity to catch up with Grampy Dick and Nana Diane via the webcam. Later, when enough snow had accumulated (8-9 inches) that we could no longer resist the pull outside, we bundled up and headed into the fluffy stuff. Willow and Juliane even got in a bit of sledding before the plow cleared the street.

And thank goodness for the snow. Without it, Santa's sled and reindeer were in for a rough landing. We wouldn't want Grammy Sally's beautiful handknit stockings still hanging empty on Christmas morning because Santa couldn't find a place to land.

As mentioned earlier, Willow has been spending a lot of time building and occupying forts lately, which makes it rather difficult to capture a decent photo of the sweet girl. So, although I am including a posed photo of Willow in her fort du jour, I am also including a photo that was taken of her during one of those rare moments that she was not in a fort.

Okay, this photo dates back to October 15th, but it'll have to do. With steelhead season upon us and fewer hours of daylight to work with, I ended up with only a few mediocre (forced-grin) shots this past weekend. It didn't help that Willow spent much of Sunday playing in an impromptu fort that she had set up under and around the coffee table and couch. It was a fort that only she could fit in (barely) and was humorously and completely stuffed with toys. It got so chaotic that Willow finally decided to take it down on her own. Thank goodness. It looked like we had a refugee camp established for and by three year olds in our living room.

Willow has spent a lot of time drawing lately, but when she told us that she was drawing a seal and then showed us this, our jaws dropped.