Random Christmassy type Ramblings

What follows is completely disjointed and lacking any flow (or connections whatsoever). Just some thoughts/experiences that I needed to share.

So I was going to write that this is what it must feel like to have Christmas in Dallas but then I thought I should check to see what the weather must ACTUALLY be like in Dallas. I was wrong being that at this moment it is something like ~24C (75 F) there! Ah beauty. Nothing beautiful at all about our weather. It sucks.

That is a debateable point out on the street though. MANY are enjoying this bizarrely warm (everything being relative) snowless weather. Jokes about tulips erupting from the ground and buds on the trees abound. We have had snow. Paltry amounts of wet snow that did nothing but tease and melted in the ensuing days. Whole oceans of rain have fallen from the sky though. Torrents. Floods. The sun is a rare site and when I got up on Sunday morning I lit the Christmas tree because it was just so dark. It was (although not having ventured outside I didn’t know it at the time) a balmy 10 C (50 F). It was amore reasonable 2C (35 F) today. So cold enough not to want to hang about in a cold wind but certainly not enough for snow. Winter without snow is just boring and ugly. With snow – 10 isn’t a problem. You don’t notice the cold (much!). You can ice skate and ski and build forts and toboggan. You can live. With just cold (even “warm” cold) there isn’t much to enjoy.

I have had only two Christmas in my life (to my memory) without snow. One was spent in the Carribean (they would NOT handly snow at all well) they other was a few years back. It wasn’t as awful because there had been snow and then VERY shortly after Christmas there was a good deal of snow. This year is somewhat different. As I mentioned – very warm, tons of rain and no sign that the weather will change anytime soon (although as a seasoned Ottawan I know that change is what our weather is all about.) I need it to be cold darnit! I need snow. Lots of snow. A good snowstorm with a solid foot of snow would be a good start. Okay rant about the weather over.

Despite the un-Christmassy feel brought about by our complete absence of snow we have gone about preparing for Christmas. Kamryn and I decorated our annual Gingerbread House this weekend AND I made cookies. I felt very… Martha Stewartish. Better though Daniel and I rolled up our sleeves and got to some real wor clearing out our basement (our aim is to finish it over the winter months so the kids will have somewhere to play come…ummm…. April(?) lol when they should be playing outdoors.)

I was very pleased with our progress but I’m staggered – completely and totally — by the amount of books the two of us have ammassed and simply stored in the basement. I don’t think I will ever purchase another book again (how’s that for an empty promise). The pile is embarassingly large. I have been ruthless in sorting (read I’m not sorting at all). I’m thinking anything that has been in a box six years that wse haven’t gone searching for we obviously have little need of. As such we’re at BIG box #6 and the pile still grows.

We have amassed quite a few boxes of clothes to donate though and that makes me feel warm and fuzzy this time of year. If a little embarassed that my family is the source of so much… stuff! Hopefully, someone can put them too good use and they can make someone elses life a little easier in the New Year.

Anyway…

Pictures of Kamryn and Sam decorating our tree and Kamryn and I decorating our Gingerbread House 2006 to follow - My picture server isn't behaving right now.

Cheerio.