Christmas surprises

Christmas was nice for me this year. The lead up to the holiday season had surprises in it, good moments, some family time, and it's not over as our main family time is this coming week-end. The oldest here will be my husband at 64 and the youngest our two-month old grandson. Because we don't live close, I don't see my brother a lot, although we talk on the phone regularly; so the fact that he, my nieces, and some of their children are coming makes me happy. I am still considering exactly what to fix as that will make 15 for dinner with 6 of them small children; plus the baby who won't be eating but I am sure will make his presence known. I like cooking big dinners; so am looking forward to the whole day very much.

Christmas Eve was good with family and then a 25 mile drive home which held a few surprises. When we stepped outside to get into our truck, I was delighted to see the huge full moon. We'd been missing seeing it at the farm as the skies have been full of fog or clouds. It was a perfect Christmas moon-- brilliant, intense and beautiful with enough clouds to add accents. I wished I had brought the telephoto, but I did capture it in my memory.

After turning off the main highway onto a gravel road, in the headlights ahead, I saw an elk, then another. My husband slowed the truck as we watched three cow elk jump fences as though they didn't exist, get across to the other side, look back to see where the others were, decide plans must have been changed, and run back across to stick with the herd. He turned off the engine, and we watched them for awhile in the moonlight. The air was cold, their breath visible as they also watched us. Finally as we saw them start to turn back, we drove on to let them continue on their chosen path.

Farther down the road, an owl flew across the highway; and a few more miles, it was a bobcat running across. By the time we got back to the farm, the fog was still blocking a view of that moon except through the haze, which although I do have a few photos, they weren't the intense view I had in town and would prefer to keep it in my memory instead of them.

The last surprise was Christmas morning, when we had a rare snowfall. It does not snow much at our elevation (about 287 feet). Growing up in the mouth of the Columbia River Gorge and at a little higher elevation, I have seen a few times where snow fell on Christmas (very few). Most often if it's a white Christmas, the snow already fell and the rains are here with flooding soon to come. In Portland, the weatherman said it was the first Christmas snowfall since 1937.

This one didn't stick, nor last, but that was okay. It was just lovely to see it falling and the photos are the cows Christmas morning. A Christmas snowfall was not a good surprise in their minds.