Usually there is a period of let down – or reorganization – between Christmas and New Year’s Eve. Not so this year. An impending snowstorm took up everyone’s thoughts as the warnings came on radio, TV, and the print media. Everyone scrambled to buy supplies, check transportation to get home, purchase a new shovel, snow-blower, or supplies of salt or sand. All those people who have been saying quite positively that we don’t have snowstorms “like we used to” have been proven wrong; we certainly do.

I’ve been having a problem for a week with some kind of allergy. Never before have I been this affected. My Christmas tree was shedding quite a bit – cold weather had me pushing up the heat, so my good friends Ginni and Sylvia came over and took down my tree and lugged it out into a snowbank. I sat and methodically wrapped all the many ornaments I treasure, packed them away carefully. Some new ones were added this year. A new friend, Thelma, gave me a bright red apple with a hole, suggesting they were made by a “critter” inside. Ginni had given me a charming little snowman ornament in keeping with by fondness for all snowmen of every size and variety.

One ornament I have not put away – I want to keep it out. Wendy made a small square quilted “radiant star” of colorful folded materials. It is beautiful and well done. Such talent!

Ben gave me a very nice snowman scene painted on a slate slab, with a welcome sign for the outside doorway. Jessica and Lorraine added one more snowman to the growing “family” – a chubby fellow about a foot high, dressed in jacket, hat, and scarf. No need for me to go outside to build a snowman!

Susan gave me a fine folder in which to save the new quarters and Joy and Daniel sent a nice little wooden box with several packages of plastic folders in which to store snapshots. These presents have added some “things to do” in the still long winter ahead.

I never ask for books for Christmas but am sure I’ll get one or more from Laurie and Ginni gave me the beautiful new book A Nature Lover’s Book of Quotations by Tom Crider, published by Birch Tree Publishing Company at 100 Russian Village Road, Southbury. It is a treasure.

The author says in the introduction that this book was “assembled by one nature lover for another – the reader.” How true. It is a gem; and if you are a lover of any kind of nature – trees, birds, weather, rivers – well, you name it – there is a category for most all of nature. You’ll love this book.

I couldn’t move on to another book without mentioning the beautiful wood engravings throughout, by Thomas W. Nason. And finding five of the quotations are those of John Burroughs was a special bonus.

Laurie gave me a Dorothy Canfield Fisher book, Seasonal Timber. I haven’t had a book of hers in years, and am anxious to read it. Her other gift book is Green Mountain Farm by Elliott Merrick from The Countryman Press in Woodstock, Vermont. I was amused by the statement by the author at the first of the pages, “Vermont was named by early French explorers who saw the north end of the Appalachian chain and called it vert mont, green mountain.” It is blue sometimes, and also white.

I’ve been putting away the Christmas things, including the kitchen paper napkin holder Megan gave me. How, I wondered, did she know I needed this? The old one was plastic and one side was broken. The new one is a shiny stainless steel. She and Ben are always practical about gifts.

Scott gave  me a couple of great tapes for the VCR – one is National Parks and the other, New England. I won’t be without things to do this entire winter – I feel lucky.

Speaking about John Burroughs, the quote about books, friends, and nature which ended the last column of 2000 was from his writings.

Who said, “To plant seeds and watch the renewal of life, this is the commonest delight of the race, the most satisfactory thing a man can do”?