New Year's Eve Storms

Well, 2010 is certainly ending with a bang here in St. Louis.

This morning, we had storms that resulted in a fast moving, powerful tornado. Matt was looking out the back door when it came through. He heard it coming and wrangled everyone into the basement. We are so thankful that our home was spared. Although our house & cars are covered with little bits of insulation from someone's house.  we sustained no damage.  But many homes all around ours did not escape unharmed. Even as I write this, I can hear emergency sirens all around our home.

This house is just 100 yards from our house.

The siding was ripped off, many of the roof shingles are missing, and a second story window even blew out the front of their home and onto the driveway:

About 300 yards from our home is a major intersection. There are some restaurants, businesses and churches.
This car was parked in a McDonald's parking lot:

This is St. Paul's church and school: The church sustained roof damage:

And the building where the priests live is pretty much missing the roof and one wall.

Light posts were knocked over:

And this truck just blew over onto its side.

I took this picture while standing on what was left of a retaining wall, looking over the edge.

Half the town was shut down.

This is right up the road I drive to take Riley to day care.

This church is right up the road from our home. They sustained serious damage.

A few miles away, in Sunset Hills, MO, we found even more damage.
I know the family that lives here; please pray for them.

Approximately six homes were completely destroyed.

Look closely at this photo. You can see a small black car that was blown off the the parking lot and onto its side on the grass:

Debris was everywhere, and we had to be very careful as we walked around. We found broken glass and boards almost a quarter mile away from the heaviest damage.

The best thing about this whole ordeal is that there are no serious injuries and no fatalities in either of these locations. People were in the homes that were destroyed, but they took cover and the Lord protected them.

Winter is for Knitting

Okay, well, thr truth is that as far as I'm concerned, every season is for knitting.

But winter is especially good for knitting because your hands don't sweat on the fiber.

And knitted items make great Christmas gifts.

And somebody always gives me a gift certificate for my favorite local yarn store.

And everybody knows that yarn store gift certificates will certainly burn a hole in the pocket or bag in which they are stored if left there too long. So they have to be used quickly.

I did, actually use one of my certificates today, but that's a post for another day. Today, I'm sharing pictures of the slippers I made for Riley (age 2).

I call them the Tweet-Tweet Slippers:

I knitted them with a strand of Splash and a strand of Encore worsted. The splash makes a great effect for a kid-project, but it was not very fun to knit with. It's hard to see the stitches, and Lord help you if you have to rip it back for some reason.

Now I'm working on some blue dog slippers for Tyson. I had hoped to finish them this year, but the knitting is slow with the novelty yarn, and I'm quite certain that I couldn't finish them by Friday night... even if I did absolutely nothing bu knit between now and then.

More than a Tree

 It really is much more than a skinny, lopsided Christmas tree...

 

 This is a hand made snowflake my great grandmother made. 

It is the first on the tree & the last off the tree. 

This tree is a reminder of those who have passed.

  

A star made by my grandma. 

It's one of many she has made over the years.

This tree is a reminder of those who are far away.

 Matt gave me this ornament for my birthday many years ago.

We walked along the historic streets of an old, old town.

We found a little shop & I found this ornament.

This tree is a reminder of good times gone by.

 My aunt gave us Mickey. He is holding a clock that says 1999.

We chuckle when we see it.

This tree is a reminder to laugh.

 This is our Snow Monster, from Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer.

It has always been one of my favorite Christmas specials.

This tree is a reminder to see the world through a child's eyes.

But most importantly, this tree is a reminder to rejoice...

...to honor...

...and to remember the Reason for the season.

Winter...

It snowed.

 It was a powdery, dry snow...

 ...that blew and drifted between the houses.

 It tried to cover the Christmas lights, but they were having none of that.

 It covered up the last of autumn...

 ...the last of summer.

 It blanketed the garden...

 ...left the sunflower stranded in white...

 ...drifted up against the fence.

 But the sun came out.

 And the trees bent in the wind and collected snow between their branches.

 And someone forgot to tell this little green leaf that it's time was over weeks ago.

 The snow blew up onto the porch...

 ...and covered the hillside.

 And a small feathered friend waited patiently for me to go inside so he could have a bit of seed.

Happy winter.