Very dark, very cold

We had about 5 inches of snow here, not as much as some places, but when you are outside in -12F shoveling, 5 inches seems like plenty. The wind blew hard from the NW, 20+ mph, not as much as some places but when you are outside shoveling in -30F wind chill, 20mph seems pretty windy. It was very dark here but I guess today it is about as dark as it gets everywhere in the northern hemisphere, it is the day of the winter solstice. Still, it seemed very, very dark here.

The child we used to have (TCWUTH, she isn't a child anymore) came over to help TOPWLH with decorating for the winter holiday. TOPWLH and I had put the tree up earlier in the week but the hanging of shiny things is left to TOPWLH and TCWUTH (but she will always be our dafter). TCWUTH was also keen to display our nativity scene for her MS as apparently she had bragged on it some to him.The hockey player is new this year but we seem to have lost the troll. H-R-Bek is standing in amongst the other wise men for the first time instead of next to them. They are the only ones his size so it seemed a logical place for him to stand. The problem is with him there no one is guarding Wilt. But she got to make most of the decisions on the arrangement and this is what she settled on this year.

After arranging the characters she was taking three photos which she will be stitching together, possibly for display at some other place on the internet. While she was taking photos I took also took one.