Wishing you a Merry Christmas!

This post is special - it is for each of you.  Even though I miss you greatly - I really like our life here!  I am thinking that this post will show you why.  Living up here is a different from anywhere I've ever lived - it's raw, it's cold, it's windy, it's beautiful, and makes me feel alive!  My only wish is that each of you could experience what I have; if you did, you may feel the same way I feel.
 
Here, you can't take life for granted, it isn't easy, but it's worth it. It keeps you out of your comfort zone.

I went snowshoeing a few days ago to cut some pine boughs to bring a pine scent into the house.  I walked toward the woods...

With snowshoes on, you get to walk on top of the deep snow, but it takes some additional effort to lift the extra weight on the snowshoes -  you burn 600 calories/hr snowshoeing!

From the exercise, I was so warm that I put my mittens in my pocket...then realized that they dropped from my pocket.  I went back for them and chuckled as it made a great photo opportunity...even the imprint from them looked great.

 After cutting pine boughs and putting them in my basket backpack, I turned back toward the house and noticed a clearing in the woods and decided to explore it - I WAS SO GLAD I DID, see the videos below and you'll see why.  I thank my son-in-law, Mitch, for compressing the first video file so it fit the requirement of this blog.  I'm afraid that due to this compression it's lost some of the detail and beauty, but the others are untouched, so you will see the beauty in them:

I turned to start to leave the clearing I saw this little tree:

I was amazed at the beauty - I hope you enjoy it as much as I did:

I was awed by what I saw and started back to the house, enjoying the weather, sunset, and the memories of what I had experienced - hoping that my videos would be good enough.  I took off my snowshoes and basket on my way back into the house and I was wishing you could have shared the beauty with me!

Come out with me next year!

You are all welcome to come visit during the winter and enjoy this experience I just shared with you!

Merry Christmas!
Mark and Susan