New Year's Day 2011

The sun rose on New Years Day to several inches of snow. The wind had gone down and by 7:30 am the temperature was already a balmy 7 degrees. It was a beautiful winter wonderland. 2010 stormed out like a lion and 2011 woke up like a lamb. Everything was all white and fluffy. Drifts everywhere, with wind blown bare patches here and there.

A light breakfast of fruit, toast, chocolate milk for the kids, coffee and/or green tea for the rest of us as we all crowded around the TV. One of the traditions I began with my son when he was 5, was watching the Tournament of Roses Parade on New Year's Day. And so, here we all were, eating our light breakfast, and watching a parade of floats, held annually in California, decorated only in flowers and natural materials.

This year's parade hosted several floats focusing on the Native American side of our history. Very beautiful floats. Warmed my heart to see this part of our American heritage represented so admirably! I hope to see many more of their floats in future parades.

After breakfast clean-up and the prime rib rubbed and tucked in a roaster, we all headed out to see if we had enough snow to sled down our lil hill behind the shop. Well, if ya viewed the quick clip above, you found out we did. What a heap of fun but oh so cold!

Hot chocolate warmed us after our playing in the snow. The prime rib dinner, to follow a few hours later, was the best! And our gift giving time was warm and loving.

If this first day in 2011 is any indication of how the rest of the year will go, then I'm very hopeful.♥