Christmas week greetings,

Well, actually, two snow bunnies and a winter hare... 
the "B" for Freddy B stands for "Boy."  

The temperatures may be chilly, but Christmas week in the snowy mountains is one of our favorite times of the year.  

We give ourselves the gift of togetherness.  It is our private time.  A welcome respite between Christmas and New Year's.  Our interlude to enjoy the sweeter things in life.

This year, our uninterrupted time was spent creating joint memories, especially these:

• Reading a stack of holiday newsletters from family and friends aloud as DH drove up the mountain to our cabin.  We laughed, smiled fondly, and lovingly reminisced together.  Enjoying them so much, we hope that our friends and family  will continue to take the extra time and effort to write these newsy letters next year. We love them!
  
  

• The cool mittens-scarves-and-earmuffs and see-your-breath days, but not too cold, as we were able to keep a bedroom window cracked open for fresh air as we slept soundly.
  
  

• Sharing a sofa with DH and two dogs in front of a crackling fire under a huge king-sized Hawaiian comforter with a bold breadfruit print in red-and-green holiday colors, feeling as warm and fuzzy as our pooches.
  
  

• Listening to DH's soothing Hawaiian music guitar concerts for an audience of three -- O, Freddy B and me.
  
  

• DH's yummy hot curry dinner, steaming cups of fragrant Kona coffee, and a warm kitchen emanating comforting cooking smells.
  
  

• Watching Freddy B and O curled up on their window seat, snoozing peacefully next to the twinkling Christmas bear tree one second, and the next, in a watchdog frenzy, defending our home from the mountain dogs walking by with their bundled-up people out for a woodland stroll.
  
  

• Loving every chocolate-covered raisin from DH, grateful that he did not buy me a diamond bracelet, a Lexus with a red bow on top, a dozen red roses, and a trip to the Bahamas.
  
  

• Snuggling in bed, affectionately kissing DH on his temples and the doogies on their cheeks:  Mwah, mwah, mwah.
  
  

• Listening to The Makaha Sons singing Christmas carols, hoping that the rumor that Keali`i Reichel may be doing a Christmas CD next year is true.
  
  

• Watching the neighbor's kids spruce their snowman up with a necktie in the open field across our home.
  
  

• Bundling up, trudging through the snow, pausing to listen to the quiet of winter with the occasional plops of snow sliding off branches, and loving every minute of these shared experiences.
  
  

• Watching O and Freddy B, brimming with exhilarating rompy energy, zooming back and forth in the backyard snow field, chasing chipmunks and noisily barking up trees at scolding squirrels.
  
  

• Gazing out through our corner bedroom bay window to linger and appreciate the snow-softened landscape with a a bit of unexpected Christmas whimsy:  a potted tree with shiny Christmas ornaments peeking through snow-covered branches on a neighbor's backyard patio.
  
  

• Snuggling in front of the TV to discover the wonders of DVD rentals,  The Princess Diaries, "a Cinderella makeover story", and Shrek, a humorous computer-animated fairytale.
  
  

• Picking out and wrapping gifts for the best neighbors ever and visiting and exchanging gifts with them: 
  
  To our fisherman Jeff and Claudia: a matching pillow that says "Fish tremble at the sound of his name" to match the one we gave them last year: "A fisherman and the catch of his life live here".  From them: a beautiful, iridescent angel ornament.
  
  To our lovebirds, Trudy and Ed:  two boxes of Sunkist real-fruit gems --  fat-free and no preservatives or cholesterol.  From them: a home-baked, latticed, fresh cherry pie, so delicious we devoured it in a single afternoon!
  
  

• Shedding tears with our neighbors, Jeff and Claudia, when we learned that they had unexpectedly lost their wonder dog, Buster, who succumbed to the maladies of old age while traveling to Seattle.  
  
  We appreciated the sweetness he brought into all of our lives. Like Happy and Lucky, Buster's ashes will be buried up here in his beloved Big Bear home. We laughed over his antics of sneaking chickens and a whole turkey off the table, as well as how, whenever we visited, he'd nudge us to throw his "rubber chicken" so he could proudly retrieve it and present it to us.
  
  

• Watching Home and Garden TV, the Travel Channel's special on Christmas in Hawai`i with the music of favorite singer Keali'i Reichel in the background, and on the cooking channel, favorite chef Ming Tsai with members of the group Hiroshima. 
  
  

• Reading a book of Hawaiian proverbs, A Little Book of Aloha from my sweet sister, Joan.
  
  

• And most of all, our toasty hot chocolate nights. 
   

Delivering the right dose, our mild winters suit us well. They're never too long, too dreary, or too cold to grouse about.  While thousand of "snow birds" go South to seek warmer climes, we seek out our Big Bear winters.  

Up here in our Southern California high country, we don't get full-tilt snow as in Tahoe, Mammoth, Colorado... or upstate New York. Unlike snow-swept Buffalo, here in Big Bear, snow news is good news, as there's just enough of the white stuff to delight and fully satisfy us.  

I guess you could say we're just a flaky family of "snow bunnies and winter hares."

A Snow Bunnies applet - card  for you from Angelwinks.

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