Sunday, December 27, 2009

Christmas On Swamp River Ridge

When we heard from our daughter yesterday shortly before noon, she reported that Chainsaw Tommy had plowed halfway out their 4-mile long winter driveway to pleasantly find that the loggers who are working off the same road had come in and plowed the two miles in to their site. So between him and the loggers, the four miles was plowed and open.

The fourteen miles of the county road from the main road to their "driveway" had not been plowed yesterday but we decided to go for it anyway.

And wouldn't ya know it, before we left it started snowing here harder than we had seen it during the storm. Oh well, we wanted to have Christmas and Chicken Mama had been holding Christmas dinner for a day already. We had plenty of emergency gear in our truck and the temperature was staying in the mild 20s. So off we went.

There was one set of tire tracks which made our journey easier on the unplowed county road. Roy had the truck in 4-wheel high and we were able to go along steadily with no trouble.

This was taken on daughter and son-in-law's winter driveway. The scenery all the way was gorgeous. Everything was heavily coated with heavy, pristine white snow.

The view of their house upon our arrival. The snow stopped just about then, but yes indeed, they do have an accumulation of snow! Close to two feet of the stuff.

What a pretty tree they had. Cut from their woods and decorated beautifully.

We had a wonderful Christmas celebration. Lots of nice gifts . . . many of them homemade which are the very best!

Chicken Mama has been designing cabinets for her kitchen and was absolutely thrilled with this one for storing plates that Chainsaw Tommy surprised her with.

Daughter made a batch of root beer for Christmas and here I am nonchalantly pouring out a glassful and slopping foam (whadda head!) all over the counter.

Son-in-law has been doing so much snow removal and shoveling in the past couple of days that by 8 p.m. he was nodding off in a comfy chair. We took that as our signal to load up and head off for home. It was a bright, moonlit night and the scenery was almost more awesome than in the daylight.

When we got to the county road, it had been plowed (hooray!) so it was an easy fourteen miles to the main road. I thought for sure we were going to see a moose because there were tracks all over the road. It looked as if 50 or so of them had been traveling to a moose convention somewhere in the woods. But the trip produced no wildlife . . . and only three vehicles in the whole forty miles. Two regular cars and one police car.

It may have been a day late, but it was truly a lovely Christmas!

8 comments:

MrsMama said...

I'm glad you made it through all that snow safely! Being with family is about the best thing about holidays.

Hope you have a Happy New Year!

Mama Pea said...

Hi, Mrs. Mama - I can't quite imagine what holidays would be like (especially Christmas!) without family. I know you must have enjoyed having your sister with you. What a lot of love and fun must have gone into the meal she and your daughter prepared!

Happy, happy New Year to you and yours!

Jennifer Jo said...

Oh wow. What a wonderful snow. You guys are brave to venture out in such weather. Us Virginians are total wimps---down here they cancel schools BEFORE it snows.

Mama Pea said...

Hey, Mama JJ - I suppose it goes with the territory . . . living in northern Minnesota. We truly don't hesitate going out to do whatever unless the temperatures are dangerously low . . . and we always go prepared. (My dear hubby is Mr. Preparedness himself. We always joke that he carries a tent complete with wood stove and food for a week in his pack. And that ain't far from the truth!)

Chicken Mama said...

It sure was a nice Christmas . . . and it did, indeed, look gorgeous! I wish you two would come out more frequently, Mom!

xo

Mama Pea said...

Chicken Mama - It's a New Year's Resolution of ours . . . You're gonna get sick of us showing up on your doorstep!

Erin said...

Gorgeous! I am late to the comment board, but only because I have been crazy lady with putting away the Christmas decor! I decorate very early, but am completely over it when it's done. The pics are GORGEOUS! I can imagine how pretty it was at night, I still remember how still and beautiful the cold night air can be. So glad you guys made it out to Chicken Mama's for dinner! I will remember that if we are ever lucky enough to have you for dinner, to put a towel on the floor under the keg, hahaha! I bet the root beer was delicious!

Mama Pea said...

Hey, Erin - Oh, I wish I had the decorations and tree taken down and put away. Our tree is shedding needles so badly I wanted to take it down today but hubby begged me not to saying it still looked so pretty with the lights on first thing in the morning and then at night.

(Not only do I need a towel on the floor to catch my drips, but one under my chin, too. I had a big root beer stain on my white sweater in the middle of my chest . . . that I'm happy to say I managed to get out when I did laundry today. Such a slob!)