Bleak Mid - Winter

In the bleak mid - winter
Frosty wind made moan,
Earth stood hard as iron,
Water like a stone;
Snow had fallen, snow on snow,
Snow on snow,
In the bleak mid-winter
Long ago.

~~ Christina Rossetti ~~

Thinking back to Halloween, which seems only a week or so ago, it's hard to believe that another festive season is coming to a close and already the days are visibly longer. No matter how long we make Christmas last -- starting well before Thanksgiving and stretching it out for the full Twelve Days -- it never seems quite long enough. It goes too fast, stranding us in the very midst of the bleak mid - winter.

My antidote to an entire week of single digit temperatures: Christmas Decorations! Don't put them away yet!

For those who don't live in Lafayette, all of the village pieces you see here are store - bought from various places over the years -- nothing fancy. Except for the "St. John's Church," which is part of a series that was commissioned by our local Historical Society several years ago. It is a replica the church at 6th & Ferry, where Gerry & I were married 25 years ago. The "St. John's Church" sign, however, did not come with the building. Just by chance, I found half a dozen of them in an after - Chirstmas sale bin at Walmart. Coincidentally -- and luckily for us -- Walmart had decided to name their village church "St. John's," so I bought all the leftover signs (for something like 50 cents each!) to distribute to our St. John's friends and neighbors who I knew had one of the St. John's replicas.

You can barely see, but about half - way up the row of cars are the two Volkswagon Beetle "Love Bugs" that my friend Jes brought to Ben & Sam when she came to visit us in Philly in November 2000! We've kept them in our village ever since!