Once in a red moon...

My alarm shrieked at 1:45 am this morning.  An odd hour indeed (and yes I am exceptionally sleepy today), but there is a perfectly good explanation.  A total lunar eclipse happened last night, coinciding with the winter solstice.  My daughter and I put on coats and mittens and scarves and blankets and went out into the back yard to see what we could see.  We looked up and were amazed at the almost unreal beauty of a cloudless sky filled with a ruddy red moon and many bright stars.  Occasionally a bit of fog would float in the periphery, framing the scene above, but never obscuring that intimidating moon.  While I leaned back to watch, Becca brought out her camera and tripod and started snapping shots.  Well, snapping is inaccurate.  The longer exposure needed to capture light in a dark winter sky made her camera sound like it was nearly frozen.

As I lay there watching this grown up child of mine capturing the moon, my mind went back to what seems like a few days ago.  A mom and two kids camping out in one bedroom, watching a huge red moon through the window panes.  I don’t remember how old my children were, just that they were old enough to wake up and watch in awe, but too young to stay awake for all of it.   They vaguely remember that night.  I remember it well – one of those treasures of motherhood that will be tucked away until the next middle-of-the-night excursion.