Thanks for the responses everyone!
Al, I shot this at f9 and certainly could have gone much smaller! the original photo had just one visible flare on the right side- i cropped it out. I could also crop a bit more from the bottom although don't want to lose too much of the sparkling/well lit snow.
Janice, i cannot show a centered photo to Al or Andy

… and I did make a slight adjustment to this one to straighten the horizon!
Andy, i need to get back to my original photo (on a different computer) to play around with your idea. I like the look of the dark trees on both edges but can envision your suggestion as painting a very different scene/feel. I do know that there is not much more in the foreground of this photo as i was standing on the edge of the field (it was right off of a main road). From the bottom, i cropped an area that was not lit up by the sun. i had my wide angle lens on the camera and didn't have time to make a lens change because of kids waiting for me to get to their house to open Santa's presents
I appreciate the critiques and feedback!