"Oh, The First Snowfall of the Winter...."

A minor earthquake jolted Keith and I awake this morning just before 6 AM. The kids didn't wake, but the dog did, so E took him out and reported that there was snow on the ground! After she brought the dog back in, we both stood at the front window, watching the snowflakes fall on our front yard and simultaneously broke into singing from our Bing Crosby Christmas CD: "Oh, the first snowfall of the winter,/The first snowfall of the year...." The pre-dawn quiet was awe-inspiring, but unfortunately too dim to get good photos, although I tried.

So I'm afraid I had to settle on what I saw when I got up the second time which was well after four kids and a dog had romped to their hearts' delight for well over an hour:



Sorry it's not a pristine scene. Snow is a big deal in Southern California, and the old-timers are calling for an unusually cold and snowy winter for us. We're very excited! We've had winters with no snow and winters with just one or two snowfalls. This is the earliest snowfall we've had in our seven winters here, so perhaps a cold and snowy winter is indeed in store for us.

It is very hard for me to contemplate that on Tuesday we had record highs ofnearly 100 degrees, and five days later we have snow on the ground. Obviously life in Southern California can be strange in more ways than one....