There was a seasonable but unusual fall of heavy snow. By Christmas Eve all the snow, save that on the mountain peaks, had melted.

As the sun set behind the austere jagged outline of the craggy peaks, the lights of the town in the valley below the easterly ridge began to appear like brightly colored stars, while stars and sundry satellites began to twinkle and move in the sky. The bunnies and birds and an occasional coyote scrambled in the high chaparral--executing their final forage for the day.

As they embraced, she saw their reflection in the sliding glass door, which was framed by a strand of merry Christmas lights. The lights of the town sparkled behind their reflected silhouette.

On Christmas day a storm, dark and petulant, brewed in the north. In the south, puffy white clouds frolicked against a background of bucolic blue. By mid-morning a rainbow reached across the sky in the west. For hours it persisted, circling the compound, until it reached--in broad strokes of painterly color--from the east into the frothy grey of the north, where it finally, just before twilight, faded away.