We're at home for Christmas

Home again, home again, jiggity jig:

We celebrated our 45th wedding anniversary driving north on State Highway 99, from Desert Hot Springs to Grass Valley. That trip is nearly 600 miles and that’s a long days drive.

When we awoke yesterday morning the heavy rains of the previous day and evening had come to an end and the day was washed in brilliant sunshine. Nearly an inch of vitally important rain had fallen in the previous day and while there was still great concern in the areas that had been stripped of all their vegetation in the recent wildfires, no large movements of mud were reported on the morning news.

Snow had fallen quite heavily on the high desert around Yucca Valley, Lancaster, and Apple Valley and, of course on the mountains around the Palm Springs area. The mountains are always beautiful but dressed in winter white they are at their best.

In California’s central valley we encountered several hours of rain showers while driving through. As we approached Grass Valley on Highway 49, we began to see snow on the shoulders of the road. It increased as we rose up the mountains until the ground was totally covered with something less than one foot all over town.

Of even a bigger shock to our systems, however, was the temperatures which stood at about 26 F downtown…..brrrrrrrr. After a month and a half down in the 70’s and 80’s of the desert if felt like we had stepped into a freezer.

In this morning’s early light we drew the drapes and got our first good look at a magically white winter wonderland. The bird feeder on the deck was decorated with what looked like a huge cotton ball while the icicles dripped from the rain gutters.
Judy immediately set about decorating for Christmas and, by the end of day one, the tree was up, full of lights and our heirloom ornaments. The potpourri pot is bubbling, the village is on the mantel, and the only cds in the player are those containing Christmas favorites such as Mannheim Steamroller (we were fans long before Rush Limbaugh discovered them) and Ray Charles.)
The grandsons arrived after school and found it a little hard to understand why Grandma only had package cookies and none of the wonderful home-baked Christmas confections their taste buds were remembering. Life’s lessons continue to be learned.
Grandma tried explaining that everything would be done in its time but I don’t think they really understood.
So, we’re home for Christmas. The weather guy, by the way, says we’ve many more snowy days on the horizon so it seems certain that Christmas will be white.