The first snow fall of the 2010 winter

I'm sitting in our kitchen, our dog Molly at my feet - who has finally settled down now that we've fed her and let her out. As I look out of the french doors that look over the back garden, huge clumps of snow are rapidly falling. We have hot water bottles at the ready (a joy which I never knew until I moved here) and the radio tells us that 'it will remain bitterly cold over the weekend.' Winter is here.

Thanksgiving was only yesterday. Thursday nights, Rupert is always at Release the Word; I join him when I'm not working. This meant that we celebrated on Monday night with several other 'half-american-half-british' couples. It was a wonderful evening, laughing about the differences between the U.S. and the U.K. - sometimes moving from laughing to being a hotly debated topic - but we had fun none-the-less.

Monday night spent celebrating a wonderful tradition of giving thanks to God was a wonderful way to prepare our hearts for Tuesday morning. We saw for the first time our baby. A tiny little three inch person - lips, nose, hands, feet, heart all visible and perfect. Well, a mother would say that wouldn't she? We are now 14 weeks. Can't really believe that we are already in the second trimester. And it seems as though it's going to be a trimester spent in a very cold winter. Bring on the hot water bottles. We have a lot to be thankful for.