So, 3 posts ago, back in November [I just re-read my 7 previous posts...], I wrote about how I absolutely love autumn. Every word in that post is entirely true. However, autumn has competition [& this I have known from the start..I just did not write about it..haha].

& it's competition is [drumroll, please!]: WINTER!

How I love the winter! I nearly cannot explain it!

Its cold weather always seems to invigorate & wake me up every time I adventure out my door.

Its sunsets&rises that shine through its bare trees romance my eyes.

Its clouds, ohhh the way they change colors & size & shape & float across the sky, some with the teasing look about them of snow...

Its SNOW! The bestest type of precipitation! It blankets everything in the purest of colors, & with this frosty blanket the landscape takes on a new, positively magical appearance; it's even bright outside when the sun has long been set. It sparkles in the sunlight. It brings a smile & a joyous memory to the face & heart of most everyone; I can remember when I was a kid & snow was in the weather forecast, I would pray & pray the night before for it, for enough to get me out of school & enough to completely swallow the grass [because who likes to see tips of green grass peeping out of snow? ]. I would wake up early & peek out my window, holding my breath. I could watch it fall forever, back then, & now as well. It has such a unique sound when it falls, too; it deafens & drowns out other sounds. & the trees -- oh the trees, they especially are like candy to my eyes. :)

Anyway, one of the reasons I have written about this today is [besides loving it] because there is about 15 inches of snow on the ground outside my window here at Liberty. It is sooo beautiful [even though sometimes I do get a little annoyed having to walk through it, & everything being closed so early]. It snowed all day yesterday [Friday] & a good bit of today. Everything is covered. The trees also have ice on them, because it sleeted & freezing-rained some last night too, so it's even more wintry & magical. The evergreen trees look like a Christmas card. & my heart continues to bubble over with joy. We even had classes canceled yesterday. There's more snow in the forecast for next week [aaannddd yesterday&todays was the 2nd weekend in a row the white powder was dumped on Lynchburg :) ].

I've never seen so much snow in my life [since I'm a Southern girl ;)], & all this positively thrills me!

I have a quote to sum up just how I feel about the snow & winter:

"Snow in the South is wonderful. It has a kind of magic and mystery that it has nowhere else. And the reason for this is that it comes to people in the South not as the grim, unyielding tenant of Winter's keep, but as a strange and wild visitor from the secret North." ~Thomas Wolfe