'Tis the Season!

It's been raining and raining all day today.  Just think what a white Christmas we would have if this were snow!  If it HAD been snow, I would have been outdoors taking photos, hoping to find a Christmassy scene to share with my dear blog readers as my way of a holiday greeting.  As it was, I've been indoors all day, doing stuff to prepare for Christmas, and in the process I found a box with these old salt-dough ornaments I made many years ago when our children were small.  They had lots of fun making Santas and Christmas trees and stars and other ornaments, and so did I ( I especially had a ball making Raggedy Ann and Andy with garlic-pressed dough for their yarn hair).  Unfortunately, the children's efforts were stored in the attic, where dampness and mice destroyed them, but somehow the ones I made stayed downstairs in the back of the dining-room buffet.  I found them again just today, and I thought they made quite a cheerful array for a Christmas greeting.  So I post them here, along with my hopes that all of you have a wonderful holiday season filled with love and peace and joy, and that the New Year brings only good things to you and your families.

I don't know if I will be posting another blog until well after New Year's, since we will be traveling just after Christmas to join our son and his family for a week in the Caribbean islands of Turks and Caicos.  I can't wait to explore a biota that will be totally new to me.  So stay tuned for reports from the tropics.  Since we can't seem to be enjoying an old-fashioned winter up here in northern New York, I might as well go experience some sunshine and palm trees and sand dunes and surf. Plus building sand castles with my grandkids.