The Magic of Winter...

On this windy, cold and cloudy, New Year's Eve, the weatherman is calling for snow. Call me skeptical if you will, but so far today, I haven't seen so much as a drop of rain here in Las Vegas. Now that doesn't mean we never get snow here. We have had some on occasion. So when we do, I sit back with a hot cup of cocoa, and watch it through the window--from the comfort of my heated home--with a fire roaring in the fireplace.

American Homestead Winter - Currier & Ives 

  
I bet I had an ancestor or two that would've loved to have traded places with me. Long ago--when life depended on the planting and harvesting of crops--the long days of winter were filled with various magical rituals. They had rituals for the fields they hoped would ensure an increase in flocks, herds and the harvest. Rituals were held to protect hearth and home. They even had rituals meant to bring back the light of the sun.