CJ & Autumn Miller

So the snow has finally melted from the big storm & the ground is saturated & muddy. Friday we had freezing rain & it was a challenge to even get safely from the front door to the Bronco in the carport. Schools were canceled that day, but the bakery is kind of like the postal service. People need their danish. Sunday & Monday it rained all day & we had a flash flood warning. It ended up being so much water that schools were closed again & people couldn't make it to work due to flooded bridges. Today it is snowing. Whoa, can't wait till tomorrow!

So, mid-December we we scheduled to go to Baltimore with our good friends Mike & Ana Palmiter to watch a Christmas play & escape for the weekend. We had trouble getting tickets, so we planned a trip to Washington DC instead. The good Lord had something better in mind... SNOW DAY! It started snowing Friday night & continued through Saturday. The snow in our backyard came up above our knees. I made hearty lentil soup & we called our fun loving friends (Selena, Mike & Ana). Below is a picture account of the fun that was had:

New Years weekend we left town yet again. We flew commercially out of Washington DC to Longview, TX. That makes our total weekends at home only .5 in the last month. The trip proved to be fun & definitely worth it though. We traveled to Longview to celebrate the marriage of J & Kirby Wilcoxin. CJ was a groomsman & I helped with wedding details. It was a little weird visiting a city I lived in for a total of 6 years & stay in a hotel room. We did our fare share of reminiscing. We drove by the old Maxey Rd. house & no one is living in it. A neighbor put up a nice fence, but that is about it. East Texas isn’t our favorite vacation spot, but we did take the opportunity to visit our favorite Texas resteraunts: Bodacious & GZ’s & catch up with some good college friends.

This past weekend we took advantage of being home & went exploring  in the woods near our house. CJ found some trails along a beautiful stream & we bundled up for some snow hiking. We enjoyed our excursion so much Saturday that we went again to the woods Sunday. I brought along my new camera & tried to capture some beauty.

The week of Christmas I worked like crazy as Santa’s cookie elf at the Bakery. Charles picked us up in the Mooney Wednesday afternoon & we flew with Teco to Kalamazoo. It was a challenging trip to pack for considering we were limited to 50 lbs of luggage & our Christmas presents totaled 25 lbs. We arrived safely with a key lime pie in hand for Pam’s birthday. It was great to see Jordan that night after his long stint in California with the Marines. We attended the usual Morton family gathering Christmas Eve & the absence of grandpa Morton was hard on everyone this year. CJ was privileged to sort through his old workshop & pick some useful & sentimental tools to remember him by.

Luke, Amanda, Jordan & Paige all spent the night at the homestead Christmas Eve so we could wake up & celebrate early together the next morning. We opened presents & celebrated. They gave me a Nikon D5000 camera early so I could enjoy it on Christmas! It rained outside & we relaxed by the fire. Friday morning CJ & Jordan played a cold game of football with some old Gull Lake friends & I experimented with action shots on my new camera. Saturday we took a trip to the barn & rode horses in the snow. Teco loved chasing the horses & wore herself out playing with the other three dogs. By Saturday night it was really snowing & we were able to go cross country skiing Sunday before Mike flew us home.