Brown Christmas Is Perfect, Thank You.

I am pleased to say that this year in Minnesota we had a brown Christmas.  At least in my part of the state.  I do believe they have snow in Northern Minnesota.  Am I disappointed?  Hell no!

There is nothing enjoyable about scraping ice from windshields after going out to eat, shop or anything else you might need to venture out for.  I don't enjoy shoveling mounds of frozen white stuff off the drive and walks...and my husband doesn't either.

It gets tiresome slipping and sliding all over the streets...or seeing an inch of salt eating away at your car.  Neither cars nor people are made for ice.

Bah, humbug regarding ice skating, snowmobiling, skiing or ice fishing.  Sorry.  I don't enjoy freezing my ass off staring down a hole in the lake on the off chance that some poor fish might decide to strike.  That is what supermarkets are for.

Snowmobiling?  Seems to me the only reason people do that is to go from one bar to another and drink.  Dangerous and cold.  No thanks.  A bottle of cab in my warm house works better.  Especially considering I probably won't kill myself or others making my way from one room to another.  (Depending, of course, upon how many bottles are consumed.)

No, give me a pool and a frozen cocktail over a ice rink and hot chocolate any day.  Slipping into flip flops to leave the house is much nicer than putting on layers, a coat, a hat, gloves, boots...and then standing in melted snow in stocking feet when you take off the boots later.

Why do I stay?  I love a Minnesota man.  He wants to stay because family is here.  I stay because he gives so much to me that I need to let him claim victory in a few things.  This is one of them.  So far. 

So, brown Christmas?  I was sure hoping so.  My wish was granted.  We may not even have snow before New Year's!  That will make this frozen hell they call Minnesota much more endurable.  It really is a beautiful place to live most of the year. If you manage to shorten the four to five months of winter we usually get down to three you may even get me to say it is the best place to live in the country.

Just to celebrate I think I will go out and make a leaf angel. Or would that be tempting fate by rubbing it's nose in all things not winter?

What I Got For Christmas (Christmas Alone)

We are celebrating Christmas alone this year.  It is not the first time, nor will it be the last.  We did not decorate or put up a tree.  We have only exchanged gifts with each other three times in almost forty years.  We have always bought what we wanted during the year.  The times we bought gifts, most of them were exchanged for something else or put on a garage sale a few years later.

People want to feel sorry for us when they find out we "aren't doing anything" for Christmas.  They assume we must be depressed or Grinch's because we have not decorated (it has been a couple years since we have).

Not so. We are perfectly happy and we have Christmas spirit inside.  We just don't feel like getting out a bunch of "stuff" and then having to put that "stuff" away to get out the regular "stuff".  We are extremely busy and that is one chore we have eliminated that last couple of years.

Oh, we will decorate again.  Now that we have Gideon in our life we know the importance of making Christmas magical for him.  Once he is old enough he will want to see decorations when he comes over to Grandma and Grandpa Rowland's house and that is just fine.  Right know we just need a break.

As far as being alone, we treasure that time together.  We don't always want to be alone on Christmas. But, when we are, it is a time to just enjoy the person we love the most.  There is no pressure to be anywhere (most everything is closed).  We can stay up as late as we want, sleep as late as we want and don't have a long drive.  We don't have to clean like maniacs for company.  We can eat whatever we damn please.  We can even make love on the kitchen table if we want, because Santa ain't coming down our chimney! Yeah, people in their 50's (and later!) have sex.  Damn good sex.  Get over it. You can only hope you are that lucky when you are older.

Gifts?  I got mine early this year.  Gideon arrived next door on August 20th.  I have already blogged about our love for him.  We are now "grandparents" and I treasure every moment with him.  What better gift is there than new life that I am not responsible for 24 hours a day? We are childless by choice and grandparents by choice.  Those choices have proved perfect for us.

I also received the gift of "no cancer" in regard to the biopsy I had this fall.  When you have had cancer once that is an even bigger gift!

I got two books out this year, my first two.  It is quite a gift to hold a book in your hand that has your name as author.  The Gastien series is alive and well. I love being an indie author!

It looks like Christmas won't be white here and we both consider that a gift.  It makes the Minnesota winter a but shorter.

Lastly, I am going to be "making love to the color" (as Gastien called painting) from now until January 2nd.  No writing. Just a little promotion of my books and lots of paint and canvas.  Yeah baby!  Like Gastien, that is why I am here.  That and the writing.

I found out that my nephews 8 year old daughter wants to be an author.  She writes things and asks her mom to send them to publishers, so I am going to turn this blog over to her tomorrow.  You will be hearing from Kaylee tomorrow with some Christmas thoughts.  It would be nice if she got some comments to encourage her.

So, Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays, Happy New Year or just plain old have a great life...depending on your belief.  I am off to make love...to the color!