White Christmas!

Every year since we moved to Virginia, we’ve wished for a white Christmas. We watch the weather forecast starting the week before Christmas, and most years there’s not even hope.

This year, though, after all the turmoil 2020 brought, we thought, maybe, maybe we will at least get snow on Christmas. All week we watched the forecast hold steady with a prediction of at least a little bit of snow after dark on Christmas Eve.

And after dark on Christmas Eve, the day’s lashing rain turned to snow. At about 9pm, our 17 year old son asked if anyone wanted to go for a walk in it. I did.

He and I bundled up and walked around the neighborhood. We watched snow fall in the cone of light of a street lamp. We saw it glitter underfoot under that same light. We felt it sting our faces when we turned into the wind. We listened to the silence of it, and crunched our shoes with a squeaky crunch as we walked. We stood and watched a small herd of deer stop and watch us from a snow-covered hill. We stood looking at each each other, us with our hands in our pockets, them with their ears pricked, until my son and I got cold and started moving again.

But best of all were the Christmas lights that twinkled on the glittering snow.

And this morning, Christmas morning, with a high well below freezing today, the fresh snow coats trees, cars, and rooftops. It will glitter and blow in crisp sunlight today. Merry Christmas!