Winter Wonderland Tag

I found this on Write On, Cordy! and decided to fill it out because you know what?  I'm really in the mood to fill out tags right now.

Tag Rules: 
Link back to The Storybook Journal
Answer the questions; think Winter-y thoughts! Include pictures, if you like.
Tag at least 3 other bloggers, or more if you're feeling ambitious. :)

1. Name a few things you love about Winter and a few things you don't love so much about it.

I love snow and the absence of hot temperatures.  I love Christmas and my daughter's birthday and my husband's birthday.  I love a nice fire in the fireplace.  I love hot chocolate (though, truth be told, I drink it all year 'round). 

I don't love living in a place where we don't get much snow.  I don't love icy roads.

2. When you were a child, did you "believe" in Santa Claus?

Why is "believe" in quotation marks?  As a kid, I literally believed in Santa's existence.  As an adult, I fiercely insist upon it.

3. Is there a book or movie that you really love to read in the Winter as opposed to other times of year?

I really only watch White Christmas (1954) in the winter.

4. Is there a particular Christmas movie that you watch EVERY year as a tradition?

Alas, no.  I kind of cycle through a bunch of them, watching ones that I haven't seen for a while or am just in the mood for at the moment.  Which ones?  These ones!

5. Do you usually get a real tree or a fake tree for Christmas? Who's in charge of decorating it at your house?

We have had fake trees all of our married life.  Now that our youngest is 6, though, and not liable to pull the tree over... and now that our current fake tree is getting really wobbly... we might just get a real tree next year.  I love real trees.

As for who is in charge of decorating it?  I am, naturally!  I hand out the ornaments to the kids, and they hang them where they please.  I do the lights and garland first, though.  Otherwise, we descend into madness.

6. Does your family usually stay home or go visiting (relatives, friends, etc.) on Christmas Day?

Since moving here in 2011, we have been hosting Christmas Day festivities at our house after church.  However!  My brother and his family bought a house this year, and so they have the honor of hosting us this time instead.

7. What does your family usually do on New Years Eve? Any traditions? Do you ever stay up till midnight?

Well, Cowboy always has New Year's Day off, so we usually watch a movie.  Sometimes we stay up until midnight, sometimes we don't.  Now, back when we both worked third shift, we were ALWAYS up to ring in the New Year, which amused us greatly.

8. Do you get snow where you live? If so, have you ever built a snowman and named him Olaf?

We do get a bit of snow sometimes!  In fact, all of the pictures in this post are from earlier this month.  (Some are of snow in my back yard, and some are of Christmas decorations at Colonial Williamsburg.)  I'm always excited if there's enough snow for us to build a good-sized snowman with the kids, but I don't think we've ever named him Olaf.

Last week, my son Sam made a tiny snow mouse face and put it on top of our wind chime.  Because he's cute.

9. If it's snowing outside, would you prefer to go outside and build snowmen and enjoy it, or would you rather stay inside with a blanket and something hot to drink and maybe a movie or a book?

I love to play in the snow!  But I also love to read books while it's snowing.  Ideally, I would choose both.  And I miss living in a snow-filled world where I didn't have to choose one or the other, but could do both.

10. When do you start looking forward to or getting excited about Spring?

Usually in February.  I get creatively stagnant as winter progresses, and I start to long for the changes of spring that will reawaken my hibernating creativity.

I wasn't tagged with this, so I'm not going to tag anyone.  If you feel like doing a Christmasy tag, go for it!

A Very Merry Tag

I recently started following Abby's blog Lavender Spring, and as part of her Advent celebration, she's created this delightfully Christmasy tag.  You probably know by now that I'm something of a Christmas addict, though I haven't actually made a Christmas header for this blog this year because I can't bear to replace my Alan Ladd yet.  But I made my book blog all Christmasy, which pleases me no end :-)  [EDIT:  You know you made a good choice in best friends when they read this and immediately email you with Christmasy Alan Ladd pictures so you can have your Alan Ladd and your Christmas header too.]

Anyway, here are my answers to her Very Merry Tag!  I wasn't tagged directly by anyone, but Abby basically tagged anyone who read her initial post, so... thanks for creating this and sort-of tagging me, Abby!

Does it snow where you live around Christmas? (If it doesn't, you have my sincere sympathy.) How much? Any special snowy Christmas stories? 

Not usually.  We do get some snow in January and February most years, but I don't think we've had a single white Christmas since moving here five years ago.  I've had many white Christmases in my past, and loved them, so brown Christmases tend to annoy and sadden me.  I absolutely adore snow.

I don't have any special stories about snowy Christmases, but I do have a fun memory of a very very very snowy and icy New Year's Eve from when Cowboy and I were first married.  We lived in Wisconsin then, near a lot of his family.  One New Year's Eve, all of his siblings and their families and the two of us went to their aunt and uncle's farm about ten miles from where we lived.  A big ice storm blew in and forced us all to spend the night there at the farm.  Cowboy and I and three of his siblings all worked 3rd shift, so we stayed up all night long playing board games and eating leftover food while everyone else slept, and it was a grand time.

Do you get a real tree or a fake tree? 

We haven't had a real tree once in fourteen years of marriage, but I keep saying that one of these years, we're going to drive up into the mountains and cut one ourselves.  My family did that for many years, and it was so fun.  I like the smell and look of a real tree best, but this is the first year in so long where I haven't had a kid so small I worried they would tip the tree over and spill water all over my nice wooden floor.  I did get some of those "Scentsicles" things this year to try out, and they smell really nice, if not exactly real.

What is your favorite Christmas movie?

White Christmas (1954).  I adore it!

Where in the world would you like to spend Christmas the most? 

Wherever Cowboy and our kids are.  But if we could all be together someplace awesome like Colonial Williamsburg, I would love that too.

What fictional/literary character would you most like to spend Christmas with? 

Sergeant Saunders from Combat! (1962-67).  I would do my best to make his Christmas merry and bright, even in the middle of a war zone.  We could sit cozily together by a bonfire in some abandoned barn or sawmill or whatever, not saying much, not doing much, just being quiet together, and each knowing that the other was totally okay with just sitting there quietly together.  Bliss.  I like to imagine he would think so too.

(Vic Morrow as Sgt. Saunders in Combat!)

What is your favorite Christmas song? 

"Carol of the Bells."  Here's a favorite Christmas memory:  This is actually a Ukrainian carol, and I got to sing it with my future in-laws at their church in Ukraine (where they were missionaries) one Christmas.  That was pretty amazing, let me tell you.

What is your favorite Christmas book/story (besides, ya know, the story)? 

Probably "The Adventure of the Blue Carbuncle," a story in the Sherlock Holmes canon that takes place at Christmas and never fails to charm me.  It's one of my favorite Holmes stories, with such a great ending.  Also, it makes me laugh several times, and you know I dearly love to laugh.

Which do you prefer: multi-colored lights or white lights? 

I prefer multi-colored lights on my tree and white lights elsewhere in my house.

 What time period/decade would you most like to spend Christmas in? 

Well, I'll just say the 1940s so it meshes with my wish to spend Christmas with Sgt. Saunders, who is more dear to my heart than any other fictional character in anything at all, be it book, movie, or TV show.

Which period drama has the best Christmas scene/episode?

Welllllll, since I already used White Christmas in another answer, I guess I'll go with Little Women (1994), which opens with a beautiful example of sharing Christmas cheer with others, and also includes a Christmas scene that makes me cry (even just thinking of it, I've got a lump in my throat).  I'm speaking, of course, of the scene where Beth gets a new piano.  Too Much Wonderfulness.

I am not going to tag anyone today because I need to get school going, but I don't want this to languish unfinished anymore.  If you're feeling Christmasy and want to do this tag, please do so!

We have snow! Lots and lots of snow! More than nine inches, and more heading our way :-D Woo! I've done about 19 Dances of Joy, as you can imagine. And you should see Dano playing in the snow! He's practiced walking in his new boots since that first snowfall a couple weeks ago, so now he can run about like a tiny mutant snowman. He spent this morning picking up chunks of snow, helping Cowboy brush off the car, and scaling the new snow mountains along the edges of our parking lot. We'll proably do it all again tomorrow. And as soon as there's good packing snow, we'll build his first snowman!

Of course, this means Mom's trip up here tomorrow might turn into an Adventure, but you need one of those every now and then, right?

Connecticut weather is odd. We don't really get snow here, at least, we haven't yet. Instead, we get little white pellets that sound like someone throwing sand against my windows, look like microscopic sleet, and sting your face if you're outside. Where are my big, fluffy flakes? :-( Are we too close to the ocean or something?

Anyway, things are starting to look some better around here -- I got cowboy hats and pictures hung in the bedroom yesterday, and every day a box or two or five gets emptied and goes away. Or goes into the box that holds the broken-down boxes, anyway. Cowboy's going to have a lot to take to the recycling center this weekend. Yay! Get them out of here! AND I have most of my nice clothes unpacked and hung up, so now I don't have to wear the same two skirts to church over and over. Another yay!

Plus, it's Friday, we've got enough leftovers that I don't need to make supper tonight, and I think I might take the afternoon off and watch something while Dano sleeps. Maybe a Combat! or two :-D

Oh, did I mention I've dubbed this apartment the Crow's Nest? We're on the second story, we're sorta near the sea (okay, you can't see it from here or anything, but I know it's around somewhere), and who doesn't want to be either a whaler or a pirate?

The parking lot at work has been plowed and plowed and plowed some more, so often that we now have these giant grey mounds of snow that look like the slag heaps of Mordor. And it struck me that if you live in an urban area and that's the only kind of snow you see most of the time, then no wonder you'd hate snow. Because slag heaps are ugly and horrid and you can't even have fun climbing on them because they're so dirty.

But I get to drive home through mile after mile of countryside, with pristine snow-covered fields and forests on either side of the road. And when the sun is rising like it was this morning, filling the eastern sky with flame-tongues of orange and pink and the western sky with frosted rainbow layers, and the snow reflects the sunlight just enough to turn into a broad expanse of fairy dust, how can I not love snow?

And I realized that it's things like the sight of a snow-dusted forest that make me categorically refuse to believe in evolution. I can't believe that something that wondrous and beautiful could just happen by chance any more than I can believe that the Mona Lisa was created by someone dumping a bucket of paint over a canvas or that the "Rhapsody in Blue" was written by a cat running across a piano keyboard. God created nature as surely as DaVinci and Gershwin created their works of art.

Hmm. I seem to recall blizzards being more exciting when I was a kid. We had a blizzard here tonight, in that we had winds and snow. Whenever I looked out the window, I could still see the house next door, and the snow was never blowing at a more than 45 degree angle. Guess blizzards are different in town than out on the flat MI farmland where I grew up. But we got quite a bit of snow, or so it seems -- I haven't been out, as I'm just getting over a cold and would like to continue getting over it. But they were predicting 7-10 inches for tonight... and we got almost a foot last night too....

Cowboy's not home from work yet (I didn't go to work at all cuz of the snow), but it doesn't look like they've plowed our street yet, so he'll probably have to park out on main and walk the two blocks down to our house like he did yesterday.

And to think it was in the 50s earlier this week!

Update: Cowboy is home and shoveling the driveway. He estimates we got another 10 inches, which means at least 20 inches total for the past two days. And it's snowing again. They say we'll get another 3-5 today, then an inch or so of freezing rain on top of it. Yeah. Snow, I like. Freezing rain, not so much. They've closed the interstate, one of the roads I use to get to work, and most of the town where I work is shut down. The cops say that unless it's a medical emergency, they're not coming. If you get stuck in a ditch, it's your own fault for being stupid. And if the cops in their Crown Vics with studded tires don't want to be out....

I got snow for Christmas! Woooo! Okay, it's not exactly Christmas yet, and it's not exactly the kind of snow I wanted, but it's Christmas Eve and the ground is white, so close enough! Actually, it's a really hard frost with a light dusting of snow over it so, as I drove home from work this morning, the grass and trees and rooftops looked white, and if I squinted it looked like real Christmasy snow :-D And stretching above the whiteness was a dawn as rosy-fingered as any that ever glowed over the fields of Troy. The whole morning was like a Christmas present from God just for me.

Johnnycake and Dimples got engaged tonight! My baby brother is getting married! This is so awesome!

I went to see Firewall tonight, and when I got home, Mom IMed me and told me the good news :-D So I called Johnnycake right away, and got to talk to him and Dimples for a while and congratulate them, get all the details, etc. And I get to see them in about three weeks; they're spending part of their Spring Break here.

Yippee! I really like her, and I think they'll be really happy together. Maybe even as happy and Cowboy and I are!

Oh yeah, I liked Firewall quite well--it's a good solid action movie. Not twisty or surprising or incredibly shiny, but a good ride. And I got to see it for free, thanks to Noumenon giving me some movie vouchers tonight when Cowboy and I picked him up for work. We have lots of snow here (I'm guessing about 8 inches), so I'm not going to work tonight. I tried, but it's really blowing a lot and the visibility's not real great, plus it's started drifting across the roads. I think I'm going to watch a few more Harrison Ford movies tonight, cuz I'm in the perfect mood to cuddle up with some violence...

I hate my life! This sucks!!!!! I was supposed to go visit ED at her new pad tonight...but they're predicting this monster storm; the weatherman said it would start snowing around 8pm, keep snowing and sleeting all night and part of tomorrow, and eventually we'll get 8-10 inches. So I called ED and we decided I would just go there next week.

Then I thought since I'll be home tonight after all, I'll go see Harrison Ford's new movie, Firewall. The theater is only 7 or 8 blocks from my place, I can walk home if the roads are bad after the movie's over. I get there, and the sodding projector for Firewall is B-R-O-K-E-N!!! The poor little guy behind the counter was really apologetic, cuz he knows I go there all the time. But the only other thing in the theater that I am even remotely interested in seeing is The Pink Panther...and it was already 20 minutes into its run. The projector should be fixed tomorrow. What bloody good does that do me? I have to work tomorrow night! Arrrrrrgh!

So now it's 9:55 and no snow has yet fallen. I'm not at ED's. I'm not at Firewall. I'm back at home, royally pouty, and irritated with the world.

There is nothing for it but to open that new carton of cookies 'n cream ice cream. That is the only hope for redeeming this miserable night.

And watching a Combat!. That will help; it always does.

But still!!!

I'm yearning for snow. It started yesterday morning, when I walked out of work and saw the billowy dark clouds above the parking lot. Suddenly I want to curl up in my rocking chair that used to be my Grandma's, with a really great old book and my Sheriff Woody (from Toy Story) mug full of hot chocolate. I want to walk outside and see soft white snow everywhere, like a layer of frosting on an elegant cake. I want that anticipatory glee that I feel when it's cold and snowy and Christmas approacheth. And I know this will all come soon enough. I'm glad for this yearning, because it's something I can expect to have fulfilled. It replaces, to some extent, my desperate yen for Cowboy to finally get one of those jobs he's been applying for, to finally move on to a more permanent life. I still want those things, but not with quite such painful immediacy anymore. Now I long more earnestly for snow and hot chocolate and Christmas.

I'm afraid the trees will start budding soon. It's still so dogburned warm! We did get a lovely bit of snow on Christmas Eve (my hubby and I went wandering through a graveyard while it snowed...very peaceful), but now there's not a speck to be found. Grrr.

I'm off work today, and I must admit I'm a bit bored suddenly. I think it's the jeans. All my (3 pairs of) jeans need washing, so I'm wearing the ancient pair with gawking holes in the knees. I used to love these jeans. But today they're assuring me that I have indeed gained weight this winter (I wish I didn't love to bake and cook so much), and that's made me a bit irritated with myself, and this led to not wanting to do anything and that led to being bored. I baked blueberry muffins this morning and watched L A Story (ED loaned it to me over break) and now there's nothing on except a John Wayne movie I've seen recently. I should drag the laundry down the hall and wash it, but it's full and heavy and I want to wait with it until noon when Cowboy comes back and can help me with it. He has to work today :-( But not tomorrow! I kind of want to watch a movie, but one I've never seen before. But I have several of those, and can't decide between them. Hmmmph. Hey, just noticed that it turned a new hour, so maybe now there's something on. Or I could figure out what to make for lunch.

We have snow, we don't have snow, we have snow, we don't have snow. CAN'T THE WEATHER MAKE UP ITS MIND?

Okay, it's the day before the day before Christmas. I'm so excited! I don't know how I'm going to survive work today.

Anyway, The Two Towers rocked!!!!!!!!!!!!!! In fact, it was so awesome that I didn't even once wish that Oded Fehr had played Aragorn instead of Viggo Mortensen (usually I spend lots of time bemoaning that fact). It was gritty and rough and funny and dark and I reallyreallyreally want to see it again. (Oooh, and Boromir was in a tiny flashback scene, so hurray!) Gotta run now, my break is over...

TODAY IS THE DAY!!!!! That's right, folks. At 7:05 tonight I will be entering a darkened theater to see The Two Towers!!!!!! Woo hoo! I went and got 7 tickets on Monday (had to stand in line for about 20 minutes), because a big group of us are going: me, my husband, ED, MB, DR (akaTSR), MB's cousin JC, and whoever TSR decides to bring. We plan to get to the theater around 6, because from our experience last year, there's going to be a gigantic line.

Our weather is being so weird. We should have mounds and mounds of snow by now. Today when I walked to my car at 6:42am, it was raining and felt like April or May. Really warm. I WANT SNOW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!1

Of course, my enthusiasm for The Two Towers is slightly lessened by the fact that my beloved Boromir is dead and won't be in this one. But that's just a tiny corner of my enthusiasm. The rest of me is bouncing up and down and wearing a little facsimile of the One Ring and counting off the seconds until I get to leave for the movie...

Bad, bad me. Look how long it's been since I've blogged! I do have a reason, which I will now explain. I usually blog during my last break at work, if I can get at a computer. I do email during my first break, read a book during lunch, and blog during the third break. But I've started reading Ayn Rand's The Fountainhead, and it's so fascinating and compelling that I want to read it during my last break too.

We still have no snow :-(

That's about all the big news. Our apartment is decorated for Christmas now, tree and everything. This weekend I'm going to start baking Christmas goodies. I've started wrapping presents too. It's so exciting!

The other reason I've been negligent is that I got a really nasty stomach flu last Thursday, and it wiped me out until Monday. I just slept a lot for about 4 days.

(BTW, the pie for Thanksgiving turned out fine, as did everything else).

"Sleigh bells ring, are you listenin'? In the lane snow is glistenin'!" That's right, we've got snow! Not that I expect it to last, but the ground was fairly white this morning, and it took me 5 minutes to brush off the car. When I was walking to the car, I was thinking how cool it was that mine were the very first footprints in the snow (because who else living at a college is crazy enough to be walking around outside at 6:45am?). And then I was suddenly reminded of a quotation from the movie Chisum in which the title character (played by John Wayne) says: "Wherever you go, sooner or later, there's the law. And sooner or later you realize that God's already been there." Well, I'm not saying God was leaving footprints in the snow, but one of the adorable little bunnies He created had been. It was probably the bunny I usually spot on the way to work.

But mine were still the first HUMAN footprints on that particular stretch of campus.

My parents, brother, and grandma are in Florida right now. Being me, I'd rather have snow. Except that I've never been to Florida. Yet.

Snow! Wonderful, glorious snow! I walked to my car this morning and there were tiny white things in the air and even a few on the ground! Not that I expect it to stick or anything, but it was a fun surprise. Almost made up for the fact that I had to get up at 5:55am.