Winter Wonderland

We are home today after a wonderful Christmas with our family in South Carolina.  What a blessing to all be together and so happy on this joyous holiday.  When we arrived on Friday at about 2:00 PM, it was very warm and sunny.  We sat outside with no jacket heavier than a sweatshirt required, and watched the kids play.  The next morning was a different story:  cold and brisk, about 32 degrees.  That's okay, the excitement was high although the temps were low!  Avery delivered all the presents since it is the first year he knows how to read!

Lily was not quite awake at first, but it was so cute to watch her with all the new surprises. She finally retreated under the dining table to play with her Strawberry Shortcake toys.

Here is the reveal of my last-minute quilting project:  a Christmas wreath for Dave and Emily.

It is the same size as the Thanksgiving turkey quilt.  Eventually they will have something for each season to hang in that spot.  The fabrics for the wreath range from homespun to hand-dyes.  I even put in a little bit of Vicki Walsh's sun-printed fabric with pine needles, and some Wear Warm Mittens commercial print fabric.

I quilted with a dark green cotton thread appropriately called "Pine" for the wreath, and a Linen color thread for the background areas.  I did some freehand pine branches that extended into the background.

That afternoon the kids went to visit their mother's family.  We made a fire outside and burned all the wrappings, boxes, and lots of oak leaves in Bryson's back yard.

The younger adults stayed up until past midnight, because there was a chance of snow in the forecast.  They finally gave up and went to bed.  And, sometime during the night, the snow began to fall.

In fact, the entire east coast had a day after Christmas snowfall that was one for the books.  For the first time in our married life, we did not make it to the Western part of the state to visit Charlie's relatives.  They were all snowed in, and we decided to just go home.  But it was hard to say goodbye!

It was like driving through a Christmas card!  We traveled along I-95, the "snowbird route" between New York and Florida,  instead of our usual route through smaller towns on Highway 15.  I have never seen I-95 looking so beautiful.

There were so many gorgeous landscapes.  I shot pictures all the way.  Here is a little church.

I loved seeing the farms and barns in the snow.

But mainly, the white pines stole the show, blanketed in heavy drifts of fluffy snow.

We stopped in Smithfield, NC for a bite to eat, and were lucky enough to get inside a Golden Corral just before they closed the doors for the day.  The roads were getting bad, and there was a multi-vehicle wreck in the Southbound lanes of I-95 just before our exit.

Traffic was tied up for miles in that direction.

Trees were starting to get bent over and break from the weight of the ice and snow.

But truly, the roads were in good shape.  The first road we encountered that was not plowed was Rogers Road, on the way to our own neighborhood.  But it sure was pretty!

Our own street was lovely with all the snow-covered trees.

And our own house was looking beautiful in the pristine snow.  We had seven or eight inches.

Glad to get safely home.  Glad to pick up our doggy from the kennel, which fortunately is only about a mile away.  They were closed, but allowed us to pick up Kasey since we were there (and I think they were a little short-handed due to the snow.)

I hope that you and yours are safe and warm and happy, where ever you are today.