Still here...

Were you wondering where I've been?  I'm still here!  The past couple of weeks have been crazy busy with Christmas preparations and the birth of my new neice...so much so that I've not set foot in my stamp corner.  Just when my Christmas break from school began and I was looking forward to spending quality time with rubber and ink, a crazy ice storm hit!  The devastation is unbelievable, but we have been fortunate enough to come through relatively unscathed.  We've had electricity throughout the storm and over the past several days since...unfortunately my brother and SIL have not been so fortunate.  They live in a more rural area with lots of old trees that have snapped under the weight of the 2 cm (1 inch) of ice that accumulated.  They have been without power since early on the 22nd.  They have a 5-day-old baby and a two-year-old and my SIL is recovering from a C-section, so they are staying with us until their power is restored.  It has made for a very busy household as we try to keep things upbeat and fun as Christmas approaches.  So, rather than photos of cute projects, I have photos of my cute little neice and some amazing shots of the ice left  by the storm...

Just one day old here!

Snug as a bug...at the ripe old age of 5 days!

This is what my bedroom window looked like when I woke up Sunday morning!

This is a shrub that now looks more like ground cover!

Each needle on this pine shrub is encased in ice.

Seed pods frozen in an inch of ice.

We are one of the few in our neighbourhood who didn't lose a treee.  Given the amount of ice on this branch it is easy to see why so many trees came down!

If it weren't so devastating it would be almost magical...everything sparkles in the sun.

Frozen hydrangea!

As I mentioned we are so blessed to have maintained power throughout.  Our city is like a little island amid a sea of devastation.  My SIL said that when they were driving to our house in the darkness seeing the lights of Cambridge was such a relief.  We weren't expecting to have guests for Christmas, but it is looking like we will, as the earliest prediction that they will have electricity back is 10:00 pm tonight.  The weather here has been very cold  (a high of  -10 C today!) so it will take a while for their house to warm back up, which likely means Santa will be delivering extra presents to our house tonight!
I hope you all are safe and warm...I wish you all a very merry Christmas and a very blessed new year!