(previously used image…I was running to late to take a pic of today’s snow)
“It is, indeed, the season of regenerated feeling–the season for kindling, not merely the fire of hospitality in the hall, but the genial flame of charity in the heart.”
~Washington Irving
It is hard to fathom. One minute it is Halloween, the next sees a brief return of spring weather, and before you know it you awake a little more than a week from the Thanksgiving holiday to find a smattering of snow on the ground!
The Christmas mood was already creeping up on me, inspired in part by my decision to take advantage of last weekend’s good weather to get all the outside Christmas lights strung up (haven’t lit them yet, other than to test them) and partially inspired by the handful of Christmas magazines that I bought last week and have stashed away for my viewing pleasure come Thanksgiving week. The snow and colder temps almost have me reaching for the Christmas music station on the radio…almost!
I love the season, and frequently get an early start on it. It is still a bit too early to launch into it yet…though I suspect that this weekend will find me giving in and putting up the inside decorations and lighting the lights. The Thanksgiving holiday is so late this year that I just cannot accept only having Christmas lights on for a month…I like at least a month and a half of enjoying them…after all, it is a lot of work to get it all put together. And I’m just an old softy for the season.
My brief break from blogging has been less brief than I had planned. While this is one of my favorite times of year in my “real” life, it is one of my least favorite at work, as we have a big scary audit right smack in the middle of the holiday season. That means my joy and sanity are things I have to struggle to hang on to (and yes, there are some who believe I lost my sanity LONG ago! 🙂 ) and my at home time finds me with less energy to get on the computer…I end up in veg mode more often. But things are settling and I miss the heck out of all of you.
I saw the Irving quote in the holiday issue of Real Simple magazine (I’m such a junkie, I couldn’t even resist not pulling out one of my Christmas magazines last night!) and felt like it really summed up the way I feel about this time of year and about all of you. “Regenerated feeling” is a good catch phrase for what I feel we all must do on a continual basis to not let the cares of life overwhelm us and to simply take pleasure in each and every day and most importantly in the relationships we are blessed with.
As Gandalf says in The Two Towers, “The courtesy of your hall is somewhat lessened of late, Theoden King”. Its time to rekindle the fires for the holiday season here in the hallowed halls of Stainless Steel Droppings and welcome that genial fire in the heart. I hope the week before Thanksgiving finds all well and look forward to once again sharing the holiday season with all of you dear bloggers and blog readers.
Miss the heck out of you too Carl! I know what you mean about work being stressful…it seems like this time of the year always brings craziness at work. I can’t imagine what it must be like in your position. Glad to see you’re getting pumped for Christmas already 🙂 I am too! And it’s actually a bit chilly here today! No snow of course, but in the 50’s and that works for me! Hope things are going well for you.
Welcome back!
Well, remember we miss reading what is happening in your world too, when you aren’t blogging. Greedy little beggars, we are. :)Bea
You are making me feel all Christmassy. I love the photo and I am so jealous that you have snow. We rarely get it over here and when it comes, Christmas has usually long gone. I am impressed that you have got your lights up already. I love to walk around our town at night looking at all the lights.
Vivienne: It was one of those quick, light dusting snows that has all since been worn away by the continual rain. Nothing to be jealous of. Just enough to whet the appetite for seasonal weather but not enough to truly satisfy.
Last year I missed a warm window and ended up putting up lights in the cold. I decided not to make that same mistake this year. 🙂
Bea: I miss it too. Sometimes things have to give for awhile, even if it is just a brief respite.
Sakura: Thanks!
Chris: I definitely know that you understand this all too well, being in the field yourself. 50’s is pretty chilly, especially for your neck of the woods. I hope you guys get a surprise this year and get some snow during the festive period. 🙂
Welcome back! You have been missed, but I do understand about that pesky little thing called work 🙂
Love the picture you posted. It is currently in the upper 70s here, so I like to look at pictures of snow and Christmas-y kinds of things to make up for the decidedly non-winter weather. I need to go check out the Christmas stations on my XM radio. I hear that they started playing Christmas and Hannukah music on 5 different stations yesterday. Yay!
Terri: We have a station that started November 1st with their Christmas music. That is just too early in my book! But I don’t complain, at least its there when I want it and decide that I personally am in the Christmas music mood.
No, no, no! It’s not Christmas time yet. Please let me enjoy Pre-Thanksgiving first! 🙂
Love the (reused) photo (suddenly it’s freezing in here)!
Hi Carl! We haven’t had any snow yet. Mot even flurries… Other parts of the province have, though. It is really cold out tonight, so I don’t think the snow are going to hold off much longer.
Susan: Thanksgiving and pre-Thanksgiving has always been a part of the Christmas season for me. I don’t mean that to be disrespectful to Thanksgiving, I love the holiday, but the whole package has always been wrapped up together for me. 😉
Kailana: There have been several other states around us that have had LOTS of snow already, just a teaser here. I’m hoping for more soon!
Oh, no no no! I’m with Susan here, I don’t want to hear the X-word for a while longer!
Good luck with the end of year rush, though. Is the big audit behind you?
Charlotte: Nope. Big Audit is the week of Dec. 7th through 11th. Gotta love how it sits right in the middle of Thanksgiving and Christmas.
Carl, I was just being dramatic. The holidays are just that: holidays!
Susan: Oh, I know. I do know that some people prefer to keep them separated in their heads. I look at Thanksgiving as the first day of a month of bad…but oh, so good…eating! 😉
What a lovely post!!!! I must confess I’ve already succumbed to listening to Christmas music. 🙂 When I lived in cooler regions I would start much earlier but it’s hard to stomach here in SoCal.
Here’s hoping you have you a wonderful holiday season!
Welcome back Carl, been checking every day to see where you were! No Thanksgiving for us so it’s a bit of a lull until 1 December when, as far as I’m concerned at least, Christmas officially starts. Though my December at work is going to be very heavy too, particularly week of the 14th. I will send positive thoughts your way!
I love the picture, and I’m really jealous of the snowy surroundings. Enjoy the holiday season!
I really needed to read something nice like this today. Hope your audit goes smoothly.
I must admit I started listening to Christmas music last week. I think the cold weather just got me in the mood. Legend of the Seeker also started up again this month and it got me thinking of LOTR and all things fantasy and winter related. I even picked back up my copy of The Name of the Wind last week and started reading it again, it’s really quite good just HUGE, it’s just that time of year.
It’s funny I associate fantasy reading more with the fall and winter than the spring. I think it’s because I always read so much during the school year when I was kid. Most of my reading was done in the months of fall and winter when I couldn’t go outside. So I like reading fantasy more now than in the spring to be perfectly honest. It reminds me of my youth. As an adult the LOTR movies have brought me feelings of fantasy again in the fall and winter. I feel a LOTR rewatch coming on again before Xmas.
I also loved the small smattering of snow we received the other day. Kahlan had her first introduction to snow and she loved it. Keri said she was chasing the snow flakes around as they came down at 3:30 in the morning. Take care everyone!
Jeff: I associate fantasy with fall and winter as well. It is a natural fit with the theme of Once Upon a Time in the spring, but I think more of my Once reading ends up being fairy tale-ish, or mythological than standard fantasy. I’d have to go back and check. November is always LOTR month for me. Even though the films came out in Dec the Extended Edition DVDs came out in November and thus the association. I’ve already watched two of the three last week. I’ve been trying to really enjoy LOTR related stuff right now because I just know that the release of Star Trek this week will end up quickly throwing me into sci fi mode…a month earlier than the Experience. Oh no!!!
Jodie: Thanks. I really needed to type something like it, twas very therapeutic for me. I hope the audit goes well too, thanks for the well wishes.
Hazra: Its all gone now. I’m just hoping for a “real” snow fall very, very soon.
Bride: Thank you, I’ll send positive ones your way as well. I sometimes forget that so many of you wonderful readers are not here in the US and thus do not celebrate this holiday. Just know that on that day I will be thankful for many things, including all of you.
Amy: While I haven’t yet started listening (although I will this weekend), I must admit that I was singing Christmas carols while I was putting up the lights last week and I’ve had them in my head all week…may as well be listening. 🙂
wow.. i guess I wasn’t the only one that missed having you around!! lol lol
I decided the best way for me to delay my Scifi experience mood change was not to buy the Star Trek DVD now but instead put it on my Christmas list. That way I can keep reading the Name of the Wind until Christmas, and hopefully Sweetness of the Bottom of the Pie as well, and then slip into Scifi reading after Christmas. 🙂
Jeff: Good plan! I suspect (hope) that I’m getting it for my birthday. If that is the case, I know I won’t be able to wait until later to start watching it.
Deslily: It warms the heart…and makes me worry about you all. Ha! 🙂
It’s good to hear from you, Carl! I’ve missed you. Good luck with the audit! And hooray for Christmas – I really think it’s time to blow the dust off my Christmas mixed CDs 😀
If you get it for your birthday then just wrap it back up and put it under the Xmas tree!!! 🙂
Audits…conferences and report cards…they all get in the way of a merry spirit from time to time. Still, we have one another, us book bloggers, and that keeps us bright. It’s so funny how Halloween comes and the next thing you know it’s New Year’s Eve, but we’ll do our best to slow down and make each moment last.
I’m glad you pulled out your Real Simple; I loved that magazine until it became less and less simple for me every year with the multitude of copies sitting on my shelves. Perhaps it’s time to re-subscribe.
Bellezza: I don’t get Real Simple very often, but I loved the cover of the Christmas issue and was just sucked in. And having one another does keep us bright!
Jeff: Whatchoo talkin’ bout Willis?!?!
Nymeth: I wish I had some Christmas mix CDs. I’m tempted to resubscribe to Rhapsody just for the month of December. I’m not sure I can get through the holidays without a long shuffled mix of Christmas favorites.
I absolutely love this time of year!!
I believe that long Thanksgiving weekend is also known as LOTR weekend! It goes so well with the aroma of turkey in the air. I have to wait for the Christmas music until after Thursday, however… I drive my family mad, listening to it practically 24/7.
Good luck with the audit – nothing like major stress in the middle of all your fun! Sorry.
Have a wonderful week, anyway.
(Lucky you with snow… it suddenly got warmish here, no snow in sight. Maybe next week.)
How wonderful to see you back, Carl. Like others, I’ve been checking regularly, but assumed you were having a bit of a rest after the wonderful Challenge you hosted.
Like you, I love the Christmas season, but I love Advent even more, and “keep” Advent as best I can at home, despite the commercial and social pressures. The great advantage, of course, is that my Christmas season goes on for a whole twelve days past December 25!
I thought of you recently, because of this (from ye olde Wiki):
The Battle of the Teutoburg Forest (described as the Varian disaster by Roman historians) took place in A.D. 9 (probably lasting from September 9 to September 11) when an alliance of Germanic tribes led by Arminius (also known as “Hermann”), the son of Segimer of the Cherusci, ambushed and destroyed three Roman legions led by Publius Quinctilius Varus.
The battle began a seven-year war which established the Rhine as the boundary of the Roman Empire for the next four hundred years, until the decline of the Roman influence in the West. The Roman Empire made no further concerted attempts to conquer Germania beyond the Rhine.
So we have a 2,000 year anniversary, which is important to you because – Hermann, Missouri, is named for Hermann the victorious warrior. And those Rhinelanders who showed up in Missouri to settle and begin their wonderful wineries, are descendents of the folks who fought that battle.
This is one of the reasons I love blogging – learn a new fact and two, and voila! Someone’s anniversary trip takes on a whole new context!
Happy Thanksgiving/beginning of the Christmas season!
I have to confess that Christmas has snuck on me also this year. We were going to put the tree up this weekend, but decided to next weekend. Your photo is helping me to get into the right mood! This has been a hard year for many regular bloggers, I haven’t been very regular myself this autumn. So rekindling the flame and reconnecting is exactly what I need, too! Happy Thanksgiving to you and yours, Carl!!
I also can’t believe how fast this year has gone.
Melanie: Me neither. It defies any logical explanation. Something shady must be happening behind the scenes.
Susan: We put up ours this past weekend and I’m glad to see twinkling lights in the house, and outside the house, once again. I missed them.
Shoreacres: Thanks for the history lesson, Linda. I’ll be thinking of that when we return to Hermann in May! Challenges do wear me out but this break ended up being a bit longer than usual and I’m glad to be past it and back in the blogging world.
Qugrainne: LOTR weekend it is! I have watched the first two extended editions already this month and will probably partake of Return of the King over Thanksgiving weekend. Hope you all have a lovely time.
Ti: Me too! 🙂
As a former auditor, I assure you that you’re not the only person or company to be frazzled by audits, but I swear auditors themselves aren’t scary! I hope that they’re letting you do your work to keep the stress levels down somewhat. And congrats on getting started with the Christmas decorations already!
It all comes down next week, so we’ll see. We’re all more stressed this time because they have been tasked with being harder on us and from everyone who has been through this new process this year the word is not positive. I just cannot wait to get through next week and then to relax. Ha…or do what passes at relaxing, the work will continue to be as stressful as ever. 🙂