After leaving Florida, I headed to North Carolina to visit my family.  I have been here almost two weeks now and am not ready to make my departure later this week ... but alas, all good things must come to an end.  I have no family in AZ - they all live in NC - so it is always a joy to come home ... though I don't get to do it nearly enough.

Louie, my mom's Westie, has made appearances on the blog before, but it is time to introduce our new addition ... drum roll please ... Gizmo!!  Gizmo was in need of a better home than he came from (though not from lack of the previous owner caring, which is why she gave him up.)  He came to my mom's house in pretty poor condition, but is now beautiful and thriving ... and really, really sweet.  He was advertised as a Westie, but we don't really think so.  I personally think he is a mix between a Schnauzer and a Westie.  We will find out soon though when we have a DNA test done ... we are just so curious.  Here are a few photos we took of them for St. Patty's Day :-).

This is Gizmo.  What do you think he is?

We couldn't be happier that winter has finally returned to the high country!!  We were beginning to think it was all over with.  One request though ... for those who don't feel comfortable driving in snow, we beg of you - please stay at home.  Don't get us wrong ... we completely understand that some folks aren't used to driving in winter conditions, but when it takes almost six hours to drive from north Phoenix to Flagstaff with no apparent accidents along the way, that is waaaay toooo long!  That is just what happened last night after leaving from a meeting.  On the bright side though, we returned with two new wonderful clients!

 

This was the view from our front porch this morning :-)!

Wishing everyone a safe and joyous holiday season from our family to yours!!!

 

And that it did ... for three solid days, leaving us with almost 2 feet of snow and finally making the holiday season feel a little more real to me.

 

I have been extremely busy over the past few months with weddings, shoots and deadlines and when I heard we were going to get this massive winter storm I was soooo excited.  I have paid little attention to the holidays and though I had a tree sitting outside, I had not planned any time to actually move it inside and decorate it.  It worked out perfectly though, because I cannot think of a better way to get into the holiday spirit than to settle in with a cup of hot chocolate, a roaring fire, and some Christmas tunes playing in the background and enjoy the peace of decorating the tree - all while a peaceful snow falls outside.

A photo to give scale to how much snow actually fell ... it was a lot :-).

We had a very busy weekend down in Phoenix with three large back-to-back-to-back weddings.  Blurry eyed, sore and extremely tired we headed back to Flagstaff late last night only to be welcomed by our first snow storm.  Funny thing is, last year we made jokes all winter long that every time we had a wedding or a meeting in Phoenix we always seemed to have to drive home in a snowstorm ... looks like this year might hold more of the same :-)!