Time For a Few Flakes...

I hate snow.  And I hate being cold.  Why I live in Maine is just beyond me, but I'm here and I'm not leaving, so I deal with it.  Today, however, I'm looking forward to seeing the first few snowflakes of the season come down.

Mainly, I just want to take Ben outside and see his reaction to them fluttering against his face and catching a few on his tongue.  Obviously he doesn't remember the snow last winter, when he was one, so this will be a new experience for him, and I'm pretty excited to snap a few pictures of him.  Hopefully the weather will cooperate and we will get snowflakes, not just gross sleet or something.

I'm also enjoying the weather because it gives me the opportunity to crank my pellet stove.  I love my pellet stove.  I love it a lot.  It's like a woodstove, only better.

Once a day one of us dumps a bag of pellets in it (well, right now I'm using a bag every 3 or 4 days, but when it gets cold we use a bag a day) and I set my thermostat and it does all the work.  I can keep my house at a roasty toasty 72 degrees without having to lift a finger.  And when it's burning, it's like a woodstove so I can go stand by it and warm up if I've caught a chill or hang wet mittens in front of it to dry.  It has to be cleaned, like a woodstove, but that's usually a 15 minute process once a week, a minor trade off for the wonderful heat it provides us.

Oh, and pellets are sooooo much cheaper and more efficient than oil, it's just not even funny.  I love my stove, it was one of the best investments we've ever made.

So while it's a gross, cold, dreary day today, I've got a couple things brightening it up.  Thank goodness for the little things...