Snow is falling, snow on snow

I finally finished rewriting an essay on fragile things that I wrote in my college advanced writing class senior year. I’ve been tinkering with the essay ever since I wrote it, trying to expand it in the proper manner. Now the essay hinges on a discussion of my grandmother’s death which suits the essay perfectly but the act of finishing the rewrite has left me so depressed that I just got misty when I read an article on Yahoo! about an abandoned woman reconnecting with the two people who found her in a box when she was a newborn. Obviously, it’s time to put the essay aside for a little bit and work on something a little cheerier. Polishing up the short story I’m planning to submit to a contest with a theme of “Hard Times” didn’t really seem like the ticket, so here I am blogging.

The temp’s gone up about 20 degrees if not more since yesterday and there’s been a light snow falling most of the day. It’s these cloudy days when you realize just how little daylight we have this time of year: I’ve had my reading lamp on for all but two hours today. Luckily the winter solstice will be upon us in a mere four days and then we can start the slow, steady chug toward warmer days.

The warmer weather today called for skating before the new snow does anything to affect the currently smooth ice. Andy found a puck somewhere so I puttered around for a while with my stick, reveling in the fact that I was warm enough despite wearing jeans and no long underwear.

The snow certainly brought out the birds. There were nine pine grosbeaks by the feeder at one point today.

Tomorrow is the great Christmas cookie baking day. For the last few years my mom and my aunt have gotten together to bake dozens of cookies for the annual church cookie sale. Although I’ve always been invited to the bake-a-thon, school, travel, or work have always prevented me from making an appearance. This year not only can I make it, but my brother, his girlfriend, and Andy will be popping in and out of the kitchen. To hear my mother tell it, they drink lots of coffee, test out all the cookies, and get really cranky. Bring it on, I say.

This weekend will be the annual Christmas reunion of a group of college friends. We’ll converge in Duluth on Saturday for dinner and a play. It’s gotten be the only time in the year that I see some of them and I’m very glad we make it a point to make sure it happens.

Not working has somewhat retarded my sense of time passing. I’m shocked to discover that Christmas Eve is a week away, my return to work imminent, and a new year not far in the distance.