More Holiday Decorations

The snow sits lightly on the landscape, only frosting the leaves and branches, trimming the edges of the wet-slicked roadways.

Indoors, the furnace keeps us warm as I grade and cats doze in blankets and boxes and chairs.

All through the day, the snow will sit like powdered sugar, with here and there a single flake floating leisurely from branch to ground.

Occasionally, almost imperceptibly, a bit will melt and dissolve into the moisture beneath it. But the temperature will hold it solid, the air cooling what the ground dissolves.

Until, at last, the sun that spends all day sleeping behind the slate-grey clouds, will set without ever having shown his face. Then darkness will fall again, and with it the temperatures, preserving the whiteness we will no longer see.



The furnace will rouse itself again, as the cold enters the house and stirs us to movement. Cats will come to life and I will light the tree, it's bright lights giving warmth.



But the greatest warmth will come from those living decorations.