Mr. Snow Man… PLEASE visit me!

I mentioned that we used to live in the Pacific NW. It’s been about 4 years since we moved and I still miss it terribly. This time of year is especially bad because I absolutely loved the winters. We lived in the mountains where the kids sometimes trick or treated in snow and at times it accumulated into several feet. There were times when the roads would be shut down for days and the kids would ride snowmobiles up and down the streets. We’d be without electricity so we played games and told stories by candle light. We’d cook on the wood stove and spend the day outside making snow forts and having snowball fights. I know for many it may sound nuts to miss that kind of weather but it really was great living there.

To see the flip side of things, winters here in the south consist of a few snow flurries, lots of ice and bitter cold wind. To me, living in this kind of weather is crazy. Once you get cold, you can’t get warm… even in the house! You can drive on snow pack but don’t dare go out on icy roads. Unless you get up at the crack of dawn, you might actually miss those few snow flurries. And worst of all, if we do get an inch of snow, the entire state shuts down!

Is it too much to ask for us to get a decent snow? I mean enough to make a real snowman and actually have him sit in the yard more than 2 hours without melting? The best we’ve been able to do so far is two small balls of snow, so every year we name him gutless frank or something like that since he’s missing his middle ball.

Ok, so that’s my whine for the month.

Does anyone else get homesick? Is there a particular time of year or an event that triggers it?

Scrooge has left the house!

It’s amazing how a single item can really change your entire household. Coming from the Pacific NW where Douglas Fir trees were abundant, we have always had a real Christmas tree. Each year the tradition was to go the day after Thanksgiving and cut down our tree, come home and decorate it. The next week was spent decorating the house both inside and out.

Since moving to the south, we don’t have the luxury of having those wonderful trees at our disposal and we have to rely on someone to sell pre-cut trees. This has really dampened our spirits but even more so this year when nobody in town was selling them! We searched high and low but didn’t find a single seller in our small town. We decided the next day hubby had off we would drive to a larger town to find one but his days off were in the middle of the week while the kids were in school so we kept postponing it.

Everyone’s been such a grump the last few weeks. When asked what they wanted for Christmas, the kids said “nothing.” They’ve been bicker with one another more than normal, hubby and I have been crabby and even the animals have been in a rather foul mood lately.

Friday, hubby surprised us all and came home with a tree. Granted it’s three weeks late but by the time we were done decorating it, everyone was in a much better mood. We have even shared a few meals now without a single cross word! Today is more of the same, everyone laughing and sharing jokes and the kids asked earlier to decorate the rest of the house.

I guess I didn’t realize just how much that little tree meant to all of us until we didn’t have one.

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