Best Christmas Gift Ever

Spent the weekend in paradise. Oh my god, what a healing it was for my spirit.

I went up early in the day, spent some quality 'alone' time, surrounded by trees, mountains, quiet.

Watching the gust of wind play with the surface of the lake.

A good friend brought a bottle of wine in the afternoon. We sat on the southern exposure deck, shared some tales and laughs, good wine and chocolate. We watched the gusts of wind hitting the water of Lake Shasta as it traveled down the canyon. We were warm and cozy, sheltered by the house and mountain behind us. She headed home just before dusk.

Sunset does seriously tempt one to come out and play.

I sat on the deck and watched the shadows grow longer and longer; the mountains clothed in their sunset finest. Once the sun dropped below the western mountains, the temp dropped to about 40 degrees, so I wandered back into the gorgeous house.

Sunsets were beautiful but the temperature drops just as fast as the light.

My husband rarely, if ever, gets a day off of work during the Christmas season. He works seven days a week, 10 to 12 hour days from November 1 until Christmas day. He does get Thanksgiving day off (supposedly) but he is actually working on ads and Black Friday price changes on the computer most of the morning and again in the evening after dinner.

He actually got Sunday off. He said he was ordered to take it off because he was getting a little snarky!  Yay for Snarky.

He joined me on Saturday evening.

We stayed until Monday morning and left with completely renewed spirits. He is not snarky and I have my sanity back (mostly, on both counts).

The house was beautifully decorated for Christmas. The tree was cut fresh and filled the air with that wonderful pine scent.

Friends came up and shared dinner with us and stimulating conversation.

View from deck. Oh, did I mention the hot tub!

What a view.

 Looking up from my Kindle to this view was really breaking into my reading. I might have read the several paragraph over and over several times!

Surrounded by glass in dining room.

 +

Can't wait to return. Even the food and wine tasted better in the peacefulness of the mountains.