I do believe winter has come! We were told that once it arrives we will not see the blue sky and sun until spring. We were also told that 12 degrees here will feel like -30. They were partially right. It is REALLY cold here. The humidity does make everything seem much colder than in Colorado and if there is a wind it's twice as cold. The snow is called lake effect snow which is because of all the great lakes nearby (Lake Onterio for us). The lakes make the snow much wetter and heavier and also MUCH prettier. I am loving it! (Between shivers that is.)

These are just a couple of houses we drive by every day on the way to the temple. At night with all their Christmas lights reflecting off of the snow....it is magical.....post card perfect!

I have been intrigued with the icicles everywhere! They look deadly, but lovely.

This is right outside our bathroom window!

The shop across the parking lot from us.

We were told that New York is amazing at removing snow and it is true. They are out early every morning that it snows and plow the roads and parking lots and leave mountians of snow in the parking lots. Then on a day that isn't snowing, they load the snow into dump trucks and dump it into the canal. Quite a clever system. We have had several snow mountains dissappear and then in a day or two are replaced with new snow.

Snow mountians look like they would be so fun to play on...then Phil reminded me they get hard and crusty...ok, not so fun.

I can hear the Bing Crosby's 4 part song on the train in White Christmas singing....snow...snow...snow...snow....snow.....can you?

It's not quite to the window yet!

Our front door. They even have riding snowplows for the front walks which leave mounds of snow on the outside of the side walks.

No sleeping on this bench outside our door.

It was really funny, one day we parked facing our building instead of our backs to it and lo and behold....there was an ice machine! We had driven blocks to find one for Thanksgiving. I thought it appropriate to almost be covered with snow. I bet the ice stays nice and cold!

Don't worry about sending your parishables through the mail. They keep them refrigerated also.

Picnic anyone?

We traveled up to Ogdensburg this weekend and had an interesting experience. We had been told about bands of lake effect snow and saw it first hand. It was sunny when we left and then within minutes the sun got dark and snowed hard on us. I have tried to capture some of that here.

I do not think I have mentioned that up near Ogdensburg there are alot of Amish farms. Here was an Amish man traveling in the snow. This is the first time I have seen them NOT in a covered buggy. He probably wishes he had not taken the convertible out this day!

It was snowing harder and harder the farther we got. We were almost there before it got too bad and the drive home was clear the next day. I did not see this sign when I took the picture but thought it was funny seemingly hanging there in the middle of snow. We didn't park there!

More snow....
While you are mezmerized by the snow, I will tell you what happened one day last week. We were headed off to the temple as usual. I was ready a little before Phil and thought I would go on ahead and brush the snow off of our car so he wouldn't have to. I had no sooner started when my left foot hit some ice and down I went. Nothing like a grown woman rolling in the snow all dressed for the temple. I screamed as I went down. I am not sure why other than perhaps hoping that I could stop the fall by sheer sound....it didn't work. I layed there a moment wondering if I was hurt. Determining I wasn't, the next move was to get back up. I was so grateful no one had seen me. (Why are we embarassed by a fall?) When the door to the apartment facing the parking lot burst open and Elder Malan (another temple missionary couple) says. "Are you ok?" Well, I was until I knew they had seen it all! Now my sore muscles (which made themselves known soon after, were accompanied by hurt pride!) I said, "Can't a girl fall in peace?" He shook his head as if to say, "Women!" I was not going to mention it to Phil but did feel the need to take credit for the lovely snow angel I made. Later that day in the temple I had almost everyone ask me if I was alright. Our missionary grapevine is the best anywhere I have come to conclude. Consequently, I have been banned from going to the snowy parking lot alone! Life is so hard!

Where are all those amazing New York plows when you need one?

There he is. Wouldn't you know it....he's on the other side of the road.

These are some of the rock walls in Ogdensburg. Very pretty I think.

The St. Lawerence River is in the background.

Our little Chapel in the snow.

We woke up Sunday to sunshine. It was gorgeous! When we got home from church there were dozens of geese playing in the river. Some on an ice float. Phil called me into the living room to watch what was happening. There were about 25 ducks headed for the geese and it looked like two gangs (foul gangs at that... or should I say....fowl) going at each other head to head. I felt sorry for the dumb ducks because they were greatly out numbered and much smaller. They certainly had machismo.

I keep asking....aren't they suppose to fly south for the winter? We have geese everywhere here and I decided because of it I really wanted to have a Christmas goose for dinner. We found some at the store but they must be imported because they were almost $60! (We are having the traditional ham instead.)

This is where we live on weekends. Phil had the opportunity of shoveling snow when we got here Sat. night. He really misses doing it......I know, temple missionaries shouldn't lie!

Another view...

Have a wonderful Christmas and know we are thinking about you and you are in our hearts and prayers.

So that you don't think the mission has been so hard on us that it turned my hair gray, I need to explain that I decided before we left to let my hair be it's natural color whatever that may be. It only took two hair cuts once I got here to be the "REAL" me. I rather like it though it was a shock at first.

These are two wonderful men that have taken us under their wings and almost adopted us two homeless waifs. They both work in the temple with us and live here in New York. They have been kind enough to take us on some outings around the area. On the left is Ed and the right is John. They both lost their wives in the last year or so. They are angels in disguise for us. Not even a very good disguise at that!

They took us to Fort Niagara which was very interesting. Going from left to right is Phil, Napolean AKA Ed, and John. We had a wonderful day exploring together!

Here are some actual cannons and cannon balls just inside the fort.

This is the main buidling where the sleeping , eating and main quarters were.

Inside the box are rifles.

Sleeping quarters for the men.

Sleeping quarters for the Captain. A slightly nicer set up, I'd say.

Here is Phil and his French cousin Charles. Actually, this man came out and gave us a musket demonstration that was fascinating.

Now we are at Niagara Falls. We stayed on the American side because we didn't all have passports.

This is not too far up river from the falls.

We are getting closer to the falls.

Almost there! I couldn't help but think how scary this would be if you were on the river and had no idea what was up ahead.

Thar she blows!!!!

It was so amazing to me. I had been there before but this time it seemed even more spectacular than before. Maybe it was the company I was in, but it was an incredible day!

The majesty and power was stunning!

WOW!

Ok, I didn't really take this picture. I was trying to get away with making it look like mine but I did not see the words on the bottom right corner when I took it.

This is another outing with Ed and John. Everytime we are with them we have so much fun. They are both scientests that worked two floors apart at Eastman Kodak in Rochester for many years although they didn't know each other there. They met recently at the temple and only found out their career connection last week. This day we stayed in Rochester which is only 30 miles west of Palmyra. Phil and I had driven through but not seen anything of what we saw with them.

This is called High Falls and is right in the middle of downtown. In the summer they have laiser light shows on the wall next to the falls. Ed and John promised to bring us back for that.

We spent the majority of our time this day at the Eastman House. George started Eastman Kodak and his house is amazing. It has been turned into a museam of how he lived and his work.

This is just the front view and the whole house is about three times bigger than what you see.

Beautiful front stair way.

At one end of the house is a room with the different camers he is responsible for inventing. He is the one that replaced glass photography with film. I remember these cameras.

Here is just a small sampling of the many, many cameras we saw.

This was an early movie camera and is as big as a person.

This is where he came in the mornings to eat his breakfast. There was an organ in this room and his paid organist would play mellow music as he came down the stairs each morning. As soon as he entered into the room, the organist would decide by looking at George's expression what kind of mood he was in that day and play music to fit the mood. Now THAT's mood music!

The parlor where he did a lot of his entertaining.

This is another view of where he ate his breafast. The elephant's head is on the left wall but not showing in this picture. The organ is the wood you see center back. I wonder if I would have liked that job?

Formal dining room.


This was our Thanksgiving. We had a wonderful time with three other missionary couples and John. Thanks to a missionary couple who left us their china when they went home, we actually were able to have quite a formal setting. Our apartment is so big that it was easy to set up two folding tables.

We are so thankful to be here. We have many, many blessings and you are all part of them. We hope you also had a wonderful Thanksgiving and appreciate you following our blog.