Happy New Year from Chilly Iowa !

We went to Indiana to be with my family this year on Christmas.  With Christmas being "early" this year and me being gone for Thanksgiving not getting home till Nov. 30th, Bill and I felt like most people did this year - that Christmas was all of a sudden here so it hasn't felt quite right.  And now all of a sudden it's already New Year's Eve!

It's been a very cold winter here so far and tonight is no exception.  We'll be in by the fire staying warm and having some shrimp, cheese & crackers rather than going out.  There are no restaurants close enough or worth going out in this cold for.  It's already just 4 degrees with -11 wind chill at 5:30 tonight.  Brrrrrr.  We haven't had much snow yet though.

Diane and girls came over Sun. to open Christmas gifts, and I babysat the girls today while Diane worked.   The little one has a cold and is miserable.  Bill had one the whole time we were in Indiana and then I got a mild one. 

Bill has been pricing and ordering chemicals for next year and working on his shed.  Today he had lumber and sheets of steel delivered for the inside walls.  He and Tim have already been to a few farm related classes this winter.

All of the area farmers are ready for 2013 to be over and they're even glad the fields are white to help them forget the issues we had this past year with the long, cool, wet spring which made us not get some fields even planted, then drought again during the summer. 

I hope everyone has a safe night tonight and a relaxing day off tomorrow.

I'll be posting more pictures soon from Tahiti to warm up the winter.  :)