well, that was disappointing

We woke up this morning just in time to see the last eleven wet snowflakes falling from the sky. Oh, there has been much snow anticipation around this house lately. Much planning of warm outfits (a certain fashion conscious not-quite nine year old loves a good excuse to play with her wardrobe - and raid her mother's closet for missing components. how have we reached this stage already?!), lengthy conversations about what waiting treats would be *just right* after a long play in the snow (hot cider and gingerbread, of course!), and premature consideration regarding whether or not we should assign a gender to our snowperson. It's been years since we've had snow to play in and, saving the littlest who only vaguely understands the concept (but still runs to the window asking, no? no? -"snow, snow"; it's all about the context), we're all quite anxious. There's really nothing like the quiet magic of a first snowfall. Is there anything else that transforms the world like snow? If there is, I don't want to know about it because it would probably be the end of the world or the post-apocalyptic remains of planetary destruction. The hush hush stillness of snowfall is a little eerie, but mostly magical and the same quiet in any other place would just be wrong. I knew before I even rolled out of bed this morning that all the snow hype in the local media over the last few days fell flat. It was too loud outside.

So we wait, impatiently. And slog around in the regular old rain, which isn't quite as endearing when SNOW was promised, however insincerely.

You know what else fell short today? My thrift store trip (St. Vincent de Paul again, this might be getting serious). I went looking for ready made items to embellish for gifts. I think I'm going to have to resort to sewing something, which was my idea in the first place. I enjoy sewing, but I'm so unskilled and my sewing area is a mess; it seems a shame to go to all the trouble to make something for faraway family who might not appreciate it anyway. But I can't think of a more frugal option.

I can say that it would sure help me get into the holiday spirit if I didn't think that every time, between now and the twenty-fifth, I stepped into any sort of store or retail establishment I'd be subjected to a rendition of Santa Baby. Or, maybe even worse, that Last Christmas song by Wham. I kept Sufjan Stevens' Christmas boxed set out until, oh, March of this year. I think it's time to dig it out again. Since fat flakes probably won't be falling any time soon, I can't think of anything else that would jumpstart my winter/holiday cheer.