As we watched the snow pile up higher than it had for many years, we worried about getting out to the supermarket and we cancelled our holiday parties. But after everything settled down we began to notice what was really important---that the sky was no longer hanging with smog from cars rushing past and the trees and shrubs were glistening like diamonds. The ruby throated hummingbirds came to the feeder outside our breakfast window finding the red liquid delight that we put out for them and our indoor bulbs were shooting up with buds ready to bloom.

After a couple of days of ice and snow on our driveway we settled in to notice the clutter which hasn't really been sorted for many a moon, as they say. Wow. In a kitchen cupboard where we keep all the furniture polish and nail polish remover I came upon a box of old match folders-one from the opening of our Seattle World's Fair called

Century 21. One drawer of our guest bedroom was full of coloring books that I had on hand for grandchildren and discovered again for our great grandchildren.

On the shelf above our hall closet I discovered a can full of miniature figures which our own children got out of gum machines over 40 years ago. Wow. In another container was the farm set with the fences and trees and all the plastic farm animals. Those cans when emptied out on the living room carpet provide hours of entertainment for the new generation of offspring. There are squeals of, "Look at this little frying pan that has two fried eggs in it! Here's a little harmonica that really plays. And a whistle that really works."

My reverie was interrupted by the phone ringing to let us know that our wonderful neighbor was soon going to bring over a complete prime rib dinner. Then a little later we were called to prepare for pumpkin pie and whipped cream. Earlier in the day our young teen neighbor brought over an hors d'oeuvre tray with barbecued beef and hot Chinese mustard which my husband finished without any complaints about his sinuses burning.

Our daughter dropped in to sample fruit cake that had been steeping in a cloth

wrapped in peach brandy. And I had recently bragged to my YMCA swim class friends that I had never tasted alcohol or smoked cigarettes. Don't scoff. Because I have never been a drinker or smoker and exercise regularly I am supposed to live to be 113. I kid our grown children about never getting their inheritance since I will outlive them.

2009 will find us in a much more organized household after sorting the clutter during the winter freeze. In between throwing out old baggage tags to Hawaii and Nepal, I even had time to make a snow person topped by one of my husband's caps with a political logo on it and with the traditional carrot nose and one of my husband's old ties around its neck. This time I made the snowperson out on our deck because the last one I made in the front yard was vandalized.

My article about that incident came out many years ago, probably before you could Google it on the West Seattle Herald website. Shows you how long I have been sending in articles to the Robinson papers. We have a long lasting relationship since I wrote my first column for the White Center News when publisher, Jerry Robinson, and I were only in our forties. Long live us octogenarians.

Georgie Bright Kunkel is a freelance writer who began writing for the White Center News in the early sixties. She can be reached at gnkunkel@comcast.net or 935-8663.