Winter has Arrived!!

We have been very, very fortunate to be eased into our first winter in Cleveland.  It has been very mild with almost no snow all... until now...  Yesterday morning, it was in the high 40's but by afternoon, that rain had turned to snow and the winds started blowing.  The temperature dropped and dropped and by the time we got up this morning, it was only 6 degrees and there was about an inch of snow on the ground with some ice underneath.  It never really warmed up today either even though the sun was beautiful.  Brrrrr.... More snow is supposed to come tonight!  I was supposed to go snow shoeing with my walking group this morning but we didn't have enough snow.  We decided yesterday to just hike the trail instead.  But, it was too cold....  My Stockholm crowd would have gone anyway but not this group.  And, I am certainly not crazy enough to head out in that cold for a hike on my own!

Last weekend and this past weekend was really just about getting everyone back where they belong.  After visiting friends for a few days, Quincy headed back to St Louis.  Ready to start his spring semester.  Tabitha flew back to New Orleans on Saturday morning and is ready to tackle her spring semester.  She was thrilled to be back "home" as she told me yesterday.  Calvin continues to work hard despite his little bit of "senioritis" with this last semester of high school.  And, Max is back in the swing of his freshman year.  Bowling picked back up and he bowled in two matches last week.  We did manage to celebrate the Epiphany with our homemade king cake.

And, we sent Tabitha back to school with a box of homemade macarons.  She just loves those!

On Friday, I met a friend for coffee in Cleveland's Little Italy.   What a wonderful little area, full of food and culture!  On Saturday (while it was still warm), I took Josh to the area to introduce him to Little Italy.  He loved it!  We took a long walk through the area's many hills, did some people watching and then topped it off with a fantastic dinner at a very authentic and wonderful Italian restaurant!  I think that we were the only ones in the place that the owner did not know by name but he made a point of introducing himself and learning our names.  We might have to go back this weekend to see how good his memory is!