Noting with interest some of the other bloggers are sharing stories on the snow over the holidays and delays in either air travel or just plain driving such as in the pacific Northwest. My daughter ended up overnight in the Seattle airport catching one of four flight out to the east coast on the morning of the 21 st...she made it but not the backpack.

Yours truly has not done much outside activities except snow shovelling and one or two ravine runs with the dogs, but amazed at how both dogs enjoy the cold weather, the huskies they are. Here they are coming inside after sleeping outdoors over night in their kennels.

Now with a fridge full of food after a number of gatherings,  for New Years Eve, I had a number of options ...sitting around chatting with  a friend would be great, also a community league party and potluck..could walk dogs over....or  Downtown Edmonton was lit up for the First Night celebrations with both in and outdoor venues.

IT WAS COLD OUT so long blue parka and the prerequisite layers beneath were in order, but what a lovely evening. ETS was free so I  headed down just before 8 PM.

Here are some of the lights just outside city hall

One of the highlights was a horse drawn wagon ride about 10 PM...really nippy out... and driver and horses resting between rides. Wagon ride with percherons near Sir Winston Churchill Square & Chancery Hall.

At  8:30 PM on CBC-1 center stage, one of my favorite singers Kat Danser was on, missisippi,southern blues, but also some fusion drummers and dancers.

Sometime in November, as things now stand, the "Christmas season" begins. The streets are hung with lights, the stores are decorated with red and green, and you can't turn on the radio without hearing songs about the spirit of the season and the glories of Santa Claus. The excitement builds to a climax on the morning of December 25, and then it stops, abruptly. Christmas is over, the New Year begins, and people go back to their normal lives.

The traditional Christian celebration of Christmas is exactly the opposite. The season of Advent begins on the fourth Sunday before Christmas, and for nearly a month Christians await the coming of Christ in a spirit of expectation, singing hymns of longing. Then, on December 25, Christmas Day itself ushers in twelve days of celebration, ending only on January 6 with the feast of the Epiphany. Exhortations to follow this calendar rather than the secular one have become routine at this time of year. But often the focus falls on giving Advent its due, with the Twelve Days of Christmas relegated to the words of a cryptic traditional carol. Most people are simply too tired after Christmas Day to do much celebrating.

The "real" twelve days of Christmas are important not just as a way of thumbing our noses at secular ideas of the "Christmas season." They are important because they give us a way of reflecting on what the Incarnation means in our lives. Christmas commemorates the most momentous event in human history—the entry of God into the world He made, in the form of a baby. The Logos through whom the worlds were made took up His dwelling among us in a tabernacle of flesh.....read more with this link http://www.christianitytoday.com/ch/news/2004/dec24.html?start=1