November Happy

I've loved all the Novembers of my adult life. I think I didn't appreciate them in childhood because I wanted them to pass quickly into December for Christmas and my birthday. But now, I savor Novembers. There is poetry in the air and in the dark gray mornings that have abruptly replaced the gone-too-soon golden phase of autumn. This gray and cold season before winter is underrated. It has so much expectation. Thanksgiving and Christmas and the New Year are separate individual blips on the radar of a whole season of warmth and peace and white, cold contrast of outdoors and in. I love November because it is the slow n o w of the holidays that is there to be enjoyed if you choose not to miss it. And not in a commercial, deck your house out with latest-trend decor and crank up the Christmas music kind of way, but in a quiet, appreciative of the good things in life kind of way. Fresh, quiet snow falling and cuddling in a warm bed with my husband and my baby on a lazy Saturday kind of way. How wonderful a hot bath feels kind of way. Baking cookies and leaving the oven door open afterward kind of way. Lighting candles in the twilight of 5pm. The scent of roasting pumpkins. The crunch of new snow underfoot. Sweaters. Scarves. Mittens. Wool socks you forgot about all summer only to receive again like a present when you open your out-of-season tote to put in your sandals and shorts. The little snow-suit your baby will wear for only one season and never again, as he grows so fast and each season is a unique moment of his short childhood never to be repeated.

Yay! (not sarcastic.)

I love all of it. I can't understand the complainers and winter-haters. Yes, it is cold. Yes, we live in the Midwest. Yes there is more work in getting ready to go out into the weather and driving is more difficult. But that is life, and life with all its challenges also has its joys and I think I'm better off savoring the joys as I weather the woes, than I would be getting upset about what I cannot change and will have to face anyway (like having to warm up my car every morning before work. But I'm not mentioning that.)

Roger and I in cozy sweaters. Courtesy of webcam/Picasa 1960's filter-- because I have to resort to whatever I can with my other cameras broken, and lost, respectively.

Today is the first true snow where we live. When I woke up with Roger smiling up at his mommy and blowing spit bubbles and raspberries to say good morning, I peaked out our window and was greeted with my favorite kind of snowy day: slow and steady large flakes falling and white everywhere you look. I got so excited, I picked Roger up and said, "Look Biscuit! That's snow! Yaaaaay! Snow! You're gonna love it!" And in that way that babies totally understand emotion even if they don't understand language yet, he leaned toward the window smiling and just looking. I was witnessing my son being enthralled with creation alongside me. I love November. And I hope we can enjoy the season together all the way until our silver white winter melts into spring.

(An aside: Dave is enjoying the first snow in his manly way: he went squirrel hunting before I woke up and came home and fried up his quarry for breakfast. He is now outside shoveling our walk even though snow removal is not our obligation as renters. He just loves it.)

Now off to Pinterest I go to review and add to my winter and holiday themed boards and do some laundry. Maybe have a cookie or two that we baked last night.
If anyone is reading this yet (new blog, but I'll start off with optimistic readership expectations,) what are the things you enjoy about the onset of winter and the holidays? Happy Saturday!