Baby, It's Cold Outside

         Hello, gentle readers! Hoping this blog finds you all warm and cozy.

         I’ve been watching the news (something I don’t normally do) and seeing all the pictures of the snow and cold. Believe me, I feel for you. Though I live in beautiful Arizona now, I spent the first twenty-three years of my life in northern New Jersey, so I remember winters very well. The freezing temperatures and watching your breath turn to puffs of vapor every time you exhaled. The snow (or promise of snow) and school being cancelled, leaving us free to ice skate or sleigh ride…after chores, of course. Icicles hanging from the roof and glistening from the trees and that pristine landscape of newly fallen white stuff before all the footprints ruined it.

It wasn’t all fun and games though. I knew that if it did snow, there would be the inevitable phone call in the middle of the night. My father worked the grave yard shift in New York City. If it snowed, he’d call when he got off his shift, usually about three or four in the morning, with the wonderful words “Shirl, get the kids up. I’m coming home”. These prophetic words meant that my brother and I would need to get up (at whatever time it happened to be) to shovel the driveway, bundled up in heavy winter jackets, fur-lined boots, mittens and scarves to the point where one could barely move. So glad I don’t have to do that anymore!

But I digress. It’s the second week of 2018 and I have finally (Yay!) figured out which story I want to work on next. And it isn’t one of the eighteen I already have started. It’s brand new. The idea came to me (of course it did) while I was doing dishes and looking out the window. Strange how the best ideas come to me when I’m doing something else!

Stay warm, gentle readers! Snuggle down with a good book and cup of hot chocolate. And if you have pets, please bring them inside.

Until next time, remember to spread kindness wherever you go.

Marie