Winter played shy this year. All of November it hid high in the mountains, only barely dipping its toes down into the valleys below before running back to its perch. Even when the air beckoned with chill and the ground froze invitingly, the snow stayed away.

The frost came and layered everything with beautiful lacy designs, freezing the puddles in crystals and covering the grass, the wagons, and the barbed wire fences in sparkles.

Everything seemed to wait, as if the earth didn’t know what to do. The cows shuffled from field to field and munched on the turnips Dev planted this year. Even Behemoth and Leviathon (my nicknames for the monstrosity of steel sprinkler systems that have invaded the fields) lay still and sleeping in their glittering beastliness. Was it fall? Was it winter? It was as if a tug of war was going on, with winter hesitant to use all it’s muscles while fall hung on to each day by its fingernails.

By the beginning of December the kids were impatient, and grumpy every morning that snow didn’t appear. Dad was happy (farm work is just a little easier without snow in the way) and the cows had munched on grass and turnips longer than normal.

In the past few weeks winter finally gathered its courage and settled down onto the farm with a nice white blanket of quiet. It sprinkled the trees and covered the ice on the river and it looks as if it’s come to stay. Just in time for Christmas.

– Kerri