Comfort and Joy

The halls are decked, the shining star has been hung upon the highest bow...it's Christmas Eve!

Most of our Christmas festivities happen on Christmas Eve, which leaves us free on the actual holiday to stay in our pajamas and eat only cinnamon rolls and leftover pie.

Here in the Twin Cities we're having a good ol' fashioned snowstorm. It started last night and is predicted to last through Saturday. So far it's just enough to make driving a pain in the ass, but not yet worthy of all the hoopla our local meteorologists seem to be making of it. It's not as if we've never seen snow.

I feel for the people who are trying to travel great distances - especially those who are facing Christmas Eve camped out in an airport terminal (I am so grateful that my husband has had nearly three weeks off from travel!) - but as for the rest of us, well, it's not going to kill us all to slow down just a bit and enjoy the people in our immediate vicinity.

Sure, I would like to be able to stick with our three-stop Christmas Eve itinerary because it's tradition and it's nice to see nearly every member of the family within an 8-hour window (maybe "convenient" is a more appropriate description), but if we end up snowed in and have to spend the entire day or even the next three days as a just us, here, together...well, I can't think of anything terrible about that situation at all. Maybe it helps that I've got an entire candy cane pie in the refrigerator.

So wherever you are and however you end up celebrating, I hope you all have yourselves a Merry Little Christmas. Peace, love, coffee and pie.

Good Things

Waking up to our first substantial snowfall of the season could have made this a depressing day. (I really think I might stop leaving my house until May.)

So in the spirit of staving off depression, here are five things that are making me happy today:

1. Cheerios (and Owen)

My little Owen is still sick and had to stay home from school again today, so I took him to SuperTarget with me and told him he could pick out any food he wanted (he hasn't been wanting to eat much). Did he go for Twinkies? Cookies? Chips? Nope. "Let's go to the cereal aisle!" he said. All he wanted in the entire world was a box of strawberry Cheerios. That made me smile.

2. Brain surgery 

Okay, it wasn't the surgery that made me happy, it was learning that someone important to me got through it successfully and is on his way to recovery. I realize the rest of the list now pales in comparison, but the whole brain tumor thing comes with its own depressing thoughts, so I'm being grateful for the small things. 

3. Toys R Us

I realized today that the reason I tend to hate this place is that I only go at Christmas. When I went this morning, it was virtually deserted and halfway organized. This made me realize that there are many, many games and movies and toys that look pretty fun...and that Target has a really limited toy section...and that I'm never going to be able to stick to our two present rule for the kids this Christmas. For the record, this rule has never been followed, but it's a nice goal.

4. Wicked

I'm going to see it tonight! Have I ever mentioned my secret longing to be in a Broadway musical?

5. Top Chef

Just as we're hunkering down for a long, cold winter, Bravo brings the greatest cooking competition on television back! I think I'm going to watch every episode twice this season just to make sure I've properly savored every moment. The things these people come up with on the spot astound me. But as we know, I can barely follow a recipe. Yay Top Chef! Wednesday nights are wonderful again!

Feel free to post your own happy things from today. Together, we can overcome the gray skies, cold air and sloppy, wet snow.