Merry Christmas

Although we didn't get a white Christmas, while my family was here we got a white Dec. 14. This was up at Cotopaxi, which I have posted pictures of before. A ice storm moved in really quickly. I won't go into all the details but it was a bit scary, but we made it down ok. This first one is of a snowman that I built on top of the truck with the ice that was on there. The other one is of the truck in the storm, you can see the ice/sleet falling. The third one is of me and my sister with a snow patch from an earlier storm. Our goal was to reach that patch and just as soon as we did, it started sleeting and we ended up seeing more ice than we wanted.



This next picture is from our Christmas celebration. My sister graduated from UT and my brother in law, Matt graduated from A&M. They have a running bet that the loser has to wear the winner's shirt at all family Christmas celebrations. Well, the Ags won this year, so Becca finally had to put on the Aggie shirt.
The last one here is of us visiting a school where Christine and I help out. It is run by good friends, Dave and Ana. Guess this is all for now, after a Christmas poem. I know I have a lot more pictures from when my family was here to post, so stay tuned.

Journey of the Magi- T.S. Eliot
"A cold coming we had of it,
Just the worst time of the year
For a journey, and such a long journey:
The ways deep and the weather sharp,
The very dead of winter."
And the camels galled, sore-footed, refractory,
Lying down in the melting snow.
There were times we regretted
The summer palaces on slopes, the terraces,
And the silken girls bringing sherbet.
Then the camel men cursing and grumbling
And running away, and wanting their liquor and women,
And the night-fires going out, and the lack of shelters,
And the cities hostile and the towns unfriendly
And the villages dirty and charging high prices:
A hard time we had of it.
At the end we preferred to travel all night,
Sleeping in snatches,
With the voices singing in our ears, saying
hat this was folly.

Then at dawn we came down to a temperate valley,
Wet, below the snow line, smelling of vegetation,
With a running stream and a water-mill beating the darkness,
And three trees on the low sky.
And an old white horse galloped away in the meadow.
Then we came to a tavern with vine-leaves over the lintel,
Six hands at an open door dicing for pieces of silver,
And feet kicking the empty wine-skins.
But there was no information, so we continued
And arrived at evening, not a moment too soon
Finding the place; it was (you may say) satisfactory.

All this was a long time ago, I remember,
And I would do it again, but set down
This set down
This: were we led all the way for
Birth or Death ? There was a Birth, certainly,
We had evidence and no doubt. I had seen birth and death,
But had thought they were different; this Birth was
Hard and bitter agony for us, like Death, our death.
We returned to our places, these Kingdoms,
But no longer at ease here, in the old dispensation,
With an alien people clutching their gods.
I should be glad of another death.