Christmas Is...

Christmas is the first snow of the year.  It finally snowed here today!  I am a huge fan of winter, and a huge fan of snow.  I love it.  I relish it.  I wait for it with the impatience of a child.  And when it comes, I giggle and rub my hands together and run outside to twirl around and catch snowflakes on my tongue.  There's something about snow - and especially the first snowfall of the year - that's just...magical.

I was starting to feel a little gypped, like maybe it was never going to snow this year.  Maybe that's because it got super-cold and snowed so early last year, that it seemed to take forever this year.  But anyway, it finally showed up.  And no matter when it shows up, it always feels like Christmas to me.  Bust out the hot chocolate and the Christmas music, cuddle up with a warm blanket and a good book, and enjoy.

Of course, now that I'm an adult, with a life, in the real world that doesn't have "snow days", I find that more often than not, I have to drive somewhere in the middle of the first snowstorm.  Which I definitely do not enjoy.  And that reminds me of this classic Calvin and Hobbes strip, which is so completely true: