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Henry Dec 16 1860

So this is your eighteenth birthday

is it Nina dearest? May it be a very, very

happy one to you my darling, & may the future

realize your brightest and most sanguine an-

ticipations. It is hard for me to picture you to

myself as a grown woman, Nine, although I

know it must be so. As I look at you as you

were when I left home, I try to imagine

the change which two years & a half have made

in the placid half dreamy [countenance?] which

is before me, but I can make no alterations which

please me, & so am fain still to think of you

as you were then, until we meet again next sum--

mer. I wonder if the sun shines as brightly upon

your birthday in Winchester as it does here. I

don't think I ever saw a more beautiful winter day.

The reflection of the sun from our ice & snow clad

river & bluff seems almost to redouble its bril-

liancy, whilst the sky is as clear & the air as

soft and balmy as that of October. For a week

past the weather has been unexceptional , but for

some time before, it was anything but pleasant

I assure you, so you may imagine how much

we have enjoyed the change. I am sorry to hear

you have had so little fine weather in Virginia

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during the past fall & winter. Here it has been as

Mr Foots (I believe) would say, "on the contrary quite

the reverse," for with the exception of some two

or three weeks the fall has been a delightful one.

Our winter made its appearance a little earlier

than usual, bringing with it an abundance of

cold weather and ice, but not snow enough to give

us any sleighing yet. Charley and