Our first snow... finally!

My favorite thing in my home is not an antique or an heirloom or even a piece of furniture, it is this...

Although, it is flanked by family pieces.  The fireplace tool set belongs to my husband's 97 year old grandma and she has had it as long as he's been alive so it is at least 44 years old.  When I was visiting my parents on Christmas Eve, my mom was showing me some new decorating she had done in the basement... this is the large family room where we have all family gatherings and it is a wonderful and homey place!  Back in one of the corners I spotted the old coal bucket that we used in our old house when I was growing up.  Since she wasn't using it, she let me have it.  =]  Funny sidenote: after the little shopping trip that day with my mom, my husband was putting something in the suburban and was asking where all we had been, he thought we were antiquing and I bought that.  I said "Shh!  Be quiet!  It came from the basement and don't let my sisters know!"  There are four of us girls and mom won't let us have any family heirlooms because she's afraid to make one of us mad.  So I had to sneak it out of there before one of my sisters saw it.  Hehe!

I adore my fireplace and use it every single day of the winter.  I feel that I am very blessed to be living in the Central US in Oklahoma where we have the privilege of experiencing all four seasons.  You won't hear me complaining about the weather at any time because I am thankful God gives us such a variety and I'm grateful for it all.

The kids are super excited about the snow finally coming!  I know some of you are tired of it already because you've had several feet of it for several months but this is our first snowfall this winter which is really odd for us.  We always have a white Christmas and didn't this year.  Five year old Robbie thinks it's Christmas now because it's snowing.  Don't you just love their innocence?  It is so adorable.  He's a little upset that it's not Christmas after all.  Okay, it's barely snowing but you can see the gazebo roof is covered.

As I'm sitting inside where it's nice and warm, I'm enjoying looking beyond my red door at the beauty of the snowfall.

I hope you all are able to enjoy the beauty as well.  Please be safe and stay warm wherever you are!  We are patiently waiting (well, some of us are) for the brownies to come out of the oven.  My boys and I like to add butter to our brownies as soon as they come out of the oven.  Mmmm so delicious when it melts down into the chocolate!  Now I know, I didn't say anything about healthy but you should splurge every once in awhile.  =]

Have a delightful week~