What to do on a winter's day

Today was Sunday so I was up earlier than normal because Mike and I always go to the early service at church.  As I was getting ready I noticed the sunrise out the breakfast window.  Even though it was only 25 degrees and I was in my pajamas, I stepped out on the balcony to take a few pictures. 

This Sunday was a big day for the children of the church.  We were going to have a nativity reenactment during the late service with special music and costumes and then later in the day was to be the children's Christmas program.  Mike and I shared our pew with two of the stars of the days activity.   Although 6 month old Maggie who was to play baby Jesus was fairly mellow about her brief stardom, her brother was not.  He was super excited and told us he was going to be Bo.  It took further conversation for me to find out that Bo was the name of Mary's donkey.  (This was the name given to the donkey by Mary according to Isaac who saw it in a movie).  Isaac was so excited that none of the quiet activities I provided for him worked.  I left the service wondering how school teachers make it through the month of December. 


By the time I made it home from church it was almost lunch time and the day had become very gray with some spitting of snow.  I refused to be house bound though.  The DeMoulin Mansion in Greenville was having a Christmas Open House and I had always wanted to see the inside of that house.  In fact, it was actually for sale when Mike and I were getting ready to build our house here at the pond and we had joked about how much easier it would be to buy that one instead of building. 

The Queen Anne style house was built in 1900. At one time in the past it had the only tennis court in all of Bond County but that was removed in the 1960's.  The house has a turret, a beautiful porch and an oak staircase. 

Mike and I got caught in a pretty heavy snowfall on the way home but that did not bother Mike.  After all we were in his Jeep and it has four wheel drive.  He was so unconcerned about the weather that we stopped at Dairy Queen.   We did not really waste any time there though.  Since we were their only customers so we received our ice cream very quickly. 

When Mike and I got home I took one more picture of the pond from my balcony as the scene had once again changed.  Once that was done, I turned on the fireplace and made plans to spend the rest of the day indoors.  It was time to stay home.