Sunday, September 28, 2008

Let it Snow! Let it Snow! Let it Snow!

Last night had a distinct "smell" in the air. It reminded me of my childhood days, when I lived in the north east (New York). It smelled like snow.

This morning, I woke to a light dusting on the grass and cars and by 8:30 this morning, it was really coming down.
Ok, well, at least by MY standards, it was coming down. (I know, I know, it's gonna get worse!)

Keep in mind, this is the most snow I've seen in over 7 years.
Last year, in Alabama, we got snow. It was actually a wet slushing, but it LOOKED like snow and stuck to the grass for about 10 minutes before melting. But in Alabama, that's enough to close every single business in town for the rest of the day, and send people in a panic to the store for milk and toilet paper.
For those of you laughing... I'm not kidding. For a week after our "snow storm" in Alabama, you couldn't get milk or toilet paper. You would have thought a hurricane had come through instead of some slush.

ANYWAY...
I know this first snow is sending many locals groaning about how close the winter actually is.
For me, I am excited. I feel like a little kid, hoping for a snow day. Beans and I have spent the morning gazing out the window at the huge, wet snowflakes drifting to the ground, and even being a little giddy and dashing outside in our jammies to go see the snow up close.
After her nap, we plan to put some of our snowy gear on and go play outside in the snow... before it melts, which I've been told it likely will.

I have to say that the snow has already put me in a "Christmas-y" mood. The snow was enough motivation to pull out my list of Christmas gift projects and get started.
I can't divulge what I'm working on because the recipient is an avid reader of my blog, but I will say that working in shades of red, green, and snowy white made me dreamy of the days when the house will smell like fresh pine, candy canes, hot cocoa, and who-knows-what other yummy treats cooking up in my kitchen.

This brings me to my next "hot topic". Holidays. I babbled about my favorite (Thanksgiving) before, but now that I am thinking about Christmas, I have to share some thoughts.

Commercialism drives me nuts. I personally feel that it has ruined every half-decent holiday that has come along. Christmas USED to be about family gatherings, good cheer, and life changing paradigm shifts like Ebeneezer Scrooge in "A Christmas Carol". It used to be about celebrating the birth of Jesus.
Now Jesus has been reduced to a million plaster-of-paris castings being SOLD SOLD SOLD in millions of Christmas displays that go up sometime after Halloween, for Pete's Sake!
"A Christmas Carol" has been redone and retold by so many different Made-for-TV movies that the story has completely lost it's effect. Poor Dickens! Poor America.
Families are fractured beyond recognition (I must admit, even my own) and we have become a society to afraid to open our doors to our neighbors that even sharing holiday cheer with neighbors and friends has become a lost art.

This is why I make homemade gifts.
Yeah, I know, there are people out there who think homemade stuff is "cheap" or "tacky".
Let me be clear... I do really good work. I don't THINK I send off "tacky" gifts, and you aren't likely to get a holiday colored scarf from me each and every year... What I make will be handcrafted with love, with the recipient in mind.
Hmm. I'll take pictures and post after the holidays, so as not to ruin any surprises.
I like to give gifts with meaning.
And my "thrifty" way of giving means that even in this economic crisis we are in today (more on that in another hot-topic post!)... I can give to more of my friends and loved ones than I could if I went and bought them a bunch of expensive junk.
Seriously... I don't need another Bath and Body Works gift pack. First off, I'm ALLERGIC to the stuff they put in their products, second, they dry out my skin like crazy, third, 90% of the scents kind of make me gag, and fourth... it makes me wonder how many more of these generic type gifts my friends bought to distribute to all the people they felt OBLIGATED to give a gift to, instead of WANTING to give something to someone.

(Oh gee. I hope I didn't really offend anyone with that statement. Just remember, it's MY opinion. And if you already bought me one of those baskets, well... you have time to return it, right?)

ANYWAY... I don't know how I got on that topic this early in the season. I mean, it is just BARELY fall, and I know many of my readers today are still sitting in 80 and 90 degree heat wondering why in the world I am babbling about Christmas anyway.

All I know is that today's weather makes me want to pull out the Christmas albums already (Oh don't worry, I won't. J will would pitch a fit if he had to listen to Bing Crosby from now until December 25th.)

Meanwhile, I'll have to satisfy my holiday longings with my Christmas gift crafting, a romp in the snow with Beans, and follow it up with some homemade hot cocoa when we come in rosy cheeked and soggy from the snow.
If we have enough to build a snowman, I'll try, and hopefully take a picture too!

Until then...

Happy Moose Trails!

3 comments:

Unknown said...

Hi It's me Dawn, the friend of Susans that emailed you the other day! I am so jealous of ya'll. A friend called yesterday to tell me it was snowing and I felt sad that I was missing it.

I am not sure if this link will take you to my blog but I think it will : http://dawnsdailystuff.blogspot.com/

LynnMN said...

Enjoy your snow! How fun for baby Beans to get out and play in it! I also totally agree with you on what you said about the holidays. Its so very true! I really enjoy reading your postings. I have been trying to leave you comments but have been having trouble with password issues...hopefully this will work this time!

Hayley said...

Oh, I agree, the Christmas chaos drove me near insane this year. I can't understand how to avoid getting pulled into it all. People buy you things...you have to buy people things...I refuse to buy gifts at Wal-mart and I take way too much time trying to be creative and thoughtful. If only I knew how to knit!