If your weather has been at all like Freeport's, it has been a cold, snowy, winter so far. In December we had several good snows - one dropping about 16 inches on us (fortunately, we were in Oregon visiting Ruth's mother at the time, where we had about a foot of snow and ice! So much for that escape).

Wow! Like much of the eastern and northeastern US, Freeport has been in the grip of cold winter weather for several days.

The past two mornings the early a.m. temperature has been -15 and -10 degrees F (that's -26 and -23 C for those who use Celsius). We're supposed to warm up a bit tomorrow - to about 20 degrees F (about -7 C), and more snow is on the way.

We're spending Christmas with Ruth's mother in Salem, Oregon, this year. Our plan was to fly to Oregon in mid-December, drive to California to visit our children (and our two grandchildren), and be back in Oregon for Christmas, then home before New Years Eve.

I woke up in the dark, noticed it was just after 3 a.m. on Friday, and went back to sleep. Two hours later I awoke once more, but this time, the clock was dark. I groaned, because power failures happen all too often in Maine. Usually the power is returned in a few hours, making it little more than an inconvenience for most people. I suppose that's why, unlike other areas of the country where we've lived, Maine never seems to do anything to keep it from recurring.

What was I thinking?

For Ruth's birthday this year I gave her cooking lessons! It wasn't as bad an idea as it sounded! In fact, it was a huge success!

A little background is needed. As most of the guests at Brewster House know, Ruth is a wonderful cook, loves looking for new recipes, and daily prepares a terrific breakfast. However, unknown to most, she has always struggled with yeast breads. We've had the bread machine, still not much success. At least nothing we wanted to serve to guests.