MERRY CHRISTMAS

This time of year, DENNY HILL looks forward to his annual winter vacation in Warsaw, where he has a flat in an historic building. He spends his time there between semesters at Stony Brook University and every summer. He left last week and will return to teaching January 18th. Before he left, he sent me the following videos.

"This is what it is like now...some of these scenes are from my neighborhood:"

"And this is what it is like at night, when the Christmas lights are on:"

I remember one year GENE ROUTH sent some beautiful photos of the snow around his home at Christmas in Colorado. As the high temperature today in Austin will reach 75 degrees, and tomorrow 76 degrees, our Christmas pictures to share would be a little depressing.. dying leaves or bare trees amid all the sunshine. (Definitely not some tropical island.) They do have Christmas lights on Zilker Park's Trail of Lights every year. Minus snow of course. The city skyline is also pretty spectacular. Cooler nighttime temperatures and darkness hide the fact that one is in Texas.

However, it does snow in Amarillo, where my daughter Carajean and family live. (Carajean is also the daughter of BOB BURTON). Here is a picture of CJ and her husband Branch taken in February of 2013:

Lots of snow in their courtyard! I remember one Christmas, I believe it was in 2001, we all woke Christmas morning to a snowfall that rivaled the one in this photo. 

As the years pass, we might not be making the memories of holidays past that bring us such delight to recall. Maybe it's a good idea to make it a point to do something special with those special people in our lives...and capture those moments to remember by filming them. And share them with us, please.

Merry Christmas, and as Tiny Tim would say, "God bless us everyone."

Love and Peace,

Marilyn

ADDENDUM:

NEIL BROUSSARD sent some lovely photos of his place in San Marcos. I'm not certain when these were taken. Parts of the Hill Country had a light snowfall recently, but these look like a heavier snow.