A cool and sunny Christmas Eve morning coffee muses.

The trees this morning are filled with small cheeping birds.

There is now a carpet of brown leaves and needles covering a large portion of the still mostly green grass.

No breeze is stirring this morning to add to the chill.

We are in full winter landscape mode. Leaves will stay on the ground. Winter’s weeds will be allowed to grow. The birds will own the yard turned meadow for the winter.

The first train of the morning is whistling it’s way thru the crossings.

“Railroad crossing look out for the cars, can you spell that without any “r’s”?” It was something my dad repeated every time we drove across a railroad tracks. The answer to the riddle was t h a t… to this day I think of dad whenever I pass a crossing sign.

One thing I notice each year at this time is how much closer the bypass is once the leaves start falling. There are a number of leafy barriers between my house and the highway. But, come winter, the leafy part falls away and the sounds of traffic become much more distracting. And it happens all of a sudden.

It was thirteen years ago today that we had our Christmas Miracle, so in honor of that day I’ll close with this…

Merry Christmas to all…