It’s winter!  Okay, it’s been winter.  (Six feet of lake effect snow, anyone?)  But after Thanksgiving is when I get on board with winter.

Here’s a little-known (or maybe not-so-little-known) fact about me: I hate Black Friday.  I find the whole concept faintly sickening.  I mean, wasn’t it just yesterday that we were giving thanks for the intangibles, like the love of our family and friends, and now suddenly we’re supposed to switch gears to rampant consumerism?  Plus, crowds tend to really stress me out.  Yeah, I know the deals are great and it sure does help to have those discounts apply to holiday shopping, but… I just can’t do it.  So for years I’ve celebrated “Buy Nothing Day” on the Friday after Thanksgiving – although this year I did send hubby out for groceries.  So, okay, we did buy some food, but at least I avoided the craziness of Target and the mall.

It’s a dream of mine, in addition to celebrating “Buy Nothing Day,” to spend Black Friday on a family hike, soaking in the peace of the woods while others are fighting their way through holiday crowds.  But another Friday-after-Thanksgiving tradition of ours is to host our small tree-trimming party and decorate our Christmas tree.  So between the cleaning and cooking and digging out of decorations, my day was fully accounted for and a family hike was not on the schedule.  But I resolved to make up for it on Saturday, by taking Peanut to Knox Farm to play in the snow… and toting along the camera, in the hopes of getting a good Christmas card picture.  Which I did, and here are the outtakes.  (Warning: massive photo dump ahead.)

(Peanut’s mittens are size 2T-4T and they were HUGE.  I kept having to pause the picture-taking to put one particular mitten back on.)

Peanut’s preferred snow activity is sweeping… which is very similar to her preferred dirt, grass and leaf activity.  The girl knows what she likes.

We hung out by the barns for awhile, then ventured into a nearby field for some running, chasing, and jumping.

And more sweeping.

And general cuteness.

And, okay, one photo of the pretty bird feeders that are everywhere at Knox Farm.

But I couldn’t spend too much time focusing on bird feeders… I mean, I had the world’s cutest photography subject right there.  How could I point my lens anywhere else?

Fun was had by all.  Giggles and squeals and grins until we collapsed.

Okay, winter.  You can stay… for awhile.