Christmas Eve

Church was snowed out last night! This doesn't happen very often (and I cannot recollect the last time!). The conditions were just right for very slippery roads: Friday was in the high 30's or even 40 degrees. Saturday we had about 2" of wet snow. Pavements that were not plowed got very icy as the temperature dropped dramatically.

I plowed Saturday and so our own driveway was basically dry Saturday night.

Sunday afternoon we had between 3 & 4" of snow. That on the base of a packed icy base made side streets very slippery.

As we drove to church Sunday morning, we slide into an intersection at South Shore Drive and 10th. Fortunately no one was coming otherwise we would have been side-swiped.

We got the call that church had been canceled at about 5. I decided I would go out and plow - oh was it cold! After doing our driveway I went up to Mrs. F.'s next door. Roger was working on our walk with a shovel. Mrs. F surprised me as I was plowing. My head was "down" and it was dusk so I did not see Mrs. F exit her front door and walk towards me. Additionally the blowing snow and tractor engine would have drowned out even the sound of her approaching. Suddenly as I backed the tractor up, I looked right and she was just feet from me. She had a Christmas card for me (with a $ 50 bill!). I yelled out of fright at seeing her suddenly appear seemingly out of nowhere. Roger heard me yell next door!

Last night we went out to a church family's house at 7. They only live a mile from us and it was all on suburban streets so the drive was easy. About 4 couples gathered for fellowship. We sang Christmas carols, played Electronic Catch Phrase, had a brief Bible time, and shared snacks and dessert. We were there until past 10.

Today I am at work. Kathee is home writing reviews. I left the house at 7:00 and made it downtown in about 40 minutes. The side roads are still slippery but there was very little traffic so it was not dangerous. There are but a handful of co-workers on my entire floor today so things are very quiet.

I intend to work until about 2:30 and then head for home. I want to run the plow over the driveway again to pick up the half an inch or so of snow that collected overnight.

We will be going to Fourth's vespers service at 5:00. Kathee made lasagna and we will be having family and friends by at 7:00.

Denny Burk's The Incarnation ministered to me this morning and I encourage my readers to click over to his article. As we ponder the meaning of the incarnation we ought to those "marvel[] at those things which were told them" (cf Luke 2:18).