White Christmas?

You may already know that we live in Wisconsin, but where we live may as well be Minnesota. Now, now, Packers and Badger Fans, don't get your undies in a bundle... I'm only referring to the infamous Minnesota weather and our close proximity to Minneapolis / St. Paul. We live close enough that both Cliff and I have lived here in WI, but worked in the Minneapolis area for over 10 years. I'm going to use Minnesota here rather than Wisconsin for two reason, one of which is that most of my readers are from Minnesota and the second of which is that although I am a very proud resident of Wisconsin and love my community dearly, I am originally from Minnesota. I was born and raised in the same house my parents still live in today.

Now... when most non-Minnesotans think of Minnesota, three things come to mind. 1) Fargo 2) Snow and 3) Yah, "shore", you betcha! Okay four things. 4) Uff-duh. I will admit to saying uff-duh, but not in a "Uff-duh, that dinner shore was good!" kind of way, but in a "Uff-duh, you're really heavy for a three year old and I seriously almost slipped a disc lifting you" kind of way. I know, I know, I'm not sure one way is any better than the other either. I WILL tell you though, that I have never been to Fargo, but I don't think people in Fargo really say You Betcha as much as the movie Fargo would lead you to believe. I can't say for sure though. Now, Snow? I know snow. I remember the Halloween blizzard of 1992 like it was yesterday. I live in the country where the wind blowing across the fields causes snow drifts so big you can quite literally lose your car in them. My brother was once buried, standing up, in the snow by a snowplow (or so I've been told). I know snow. I know that this time of year - a week before Christmas - we are supposed to have snow! I do remember a couple of brown Christmases growing up. I remember one year, being out on my parents' back deck and watching the tiniest lightest of snowflakes just begin to fall on Christmas Day and hoping they'd keep falling so my sister and I could sled in the backyard. Most years though, we have lots of snow by this time. We did have snow, for just a couple of weeks, but it has been in the mid-thirties this week and has rained, so our snow is now all gone. What are we going to do with a brown Christmas? I know Christmas isn't about the snow, or the lights, or the tree, or the presents... but Christmas doesn't feel the same without those things when those things have always been part of the story.

I'm going to pray for snow and reminisce about the snow we had and maybe we'll still get snow for Christmas... or maybe we'll just have to stir up our snowy memories.

The snow we had was a beautiful snow

My very favorite place to be after a heavy, sticky snow like this is in the woods. I can't wait to get out there in the amazingly beautiful winter wonderland and listen to the complete quiet a snowfall like this creates, watch the heavy clumps of snow fall silently from the branches to the ground, sinking down into the soft snow below. I love it. Gavin must have a little bit of me in him afterall, because he stopped mid-way through the woods and turned around to face me, pointed up, and whispered to me, "It's just wike Magic" and then trotted off again to explore this wintery woodland.

This is our view across the field to our west. I always think it looks so beautiful covered in snow... three charming white farmhouses in a snowy white world.