Sister Winter

This past weekend, I had a visit from a friend! She is lovely! It was wonderful!

Here she is:

Just kidding.

I spent the weeks leading up to her visit kinda praying that winter would stick around a little bit longer. That we would keep the snow we'd had on the ground for a straight month. That the temperature highs would not get above freezing and melt all of the lovely whiteness.

Because this buddy of mine, she does things like refer to "Sister Winter" and says things like, "I LOVE the feeling of breathing in really cold air while I am exercising!" And I so wanted New Jersey to be up to scratch for my Minnesota-loving friend.

(You are getting this, right? That I was longing for winter to stick around?)

Saturday morning, we all climbed into the Swagger Wagon and drove to the Delaware River, where on Christmas night in 1776 Washington crossed the river and proceeded to win a series of battles against the British that helped turn the tide of the Revolutionary war. You all know about it:

Look! Chunks of ice in the water!

The reason I wanted to go was that the river was FROZEN! This has been a record-setting-cold winter;  the river freezing is pretty rare. It was a sight and we gently tested the ice. At the edge, of course.

"Do you think we could walk across it?…"

We walked across this bridge instead.

Saturday afternoon MKR and I took off on our own to downtown Princeton: the library, the campus, Small World Coffee. It was crowded and I got anxious about finding a table and wanted to run away to Starbucks. But not my brave friend. So we stayed and she won us a table. We had a great time sitting and trying to catch up on more than six months' worth of news and enjoying Lego art on the walls.

Later there was reading in front of the fire and the roasting of marshmallows. Many, many marshmallows (for my part, anyway).

This is a representative picture: no children were included in the actual roasting of the marshmallows (this time). It was a moment to relish being the grown-ups. And ignoring the child-limit of three marshmallows. I mean, I roasted for three rounds.

There she is!

Sunday we worshipped in our little white church and the snow began to fall on our way home. It fell for hours. By the time we got out to go tromping after lunch, it was turning to sleet.

Over the river and through the woods we went. No grandmother's house; but there was a tiny cemetery tucked away that we found, Anne-Shirley-like (she is always having amazing discoveries in mundane places).

My friend has already gone back to sunny Santa Barbara; and today when we got a surprise snow shower I felt so grateful: for her visit and friendship; that we got to play in the snow together; that she has shared something beautiful to her (winter) and made it beautiful to me, also.

And I'm grateful that we're expecting another snow storm on Thursday. Because against all expectation, Sister Winter has turned out to be a friend.