Christmas in March???!

I rolled over carefully with a small groan.

"Uuuuuugh.. ngghhmmmphhh," came a noise to my right.

"Good morning Honey," I said with a yawn.

J curled into a tighter ball from his fetal position, and mumbled something unintelligible into his pillow.

I couldn't blame him... here it was, 6:49 AM on a Sunday, and he'd got five minutes to get up and leave for work in the snow.

I could feel from the gentle, but expected draft in our house that it was cold this morning. I closed my eyes, and attempted unsuccessfully to go back to sleep. A few minutes later, I felt him lean into me and give me a warm squeeze before shifting his body out of bed.

I listened to his groggy steps thud into the kitchen; the sound of the coffee grinder (an awesome wedding present from my friends K and M) happily whirred away.

Soon it will smell like coffee... I thought to myself. I exhaled happily and drifted into that state of not awake, not asleep that is quite common in the early morning hours.

It had been the second night in a row that I hadn't woken up at 1:00, 2:45 and 3:45 AM-- thank goodness for small favors.

It was the umpteenth night however, that I  had had a weird dream sequence... lately, my dreams had been along the lines of sic-fi and western movies combined with historical fiction.

Last nights had to do with aliens, giant pancakes, overweight male dancers on the space station, and funk music.

I know, I know. Even weirder than usual.

Before I knew it, J had come in to kiss me goodbye and the giant dats were howling excitedly about their breakfast. Having realized that my body wasn't going to sleep anymore, I plodded out of bed and decided that yes, I would have a morning walk.

The weather lately has been amazing. I think that the clouds and the atmosphere are connected to me deeply, because I have consistently been waking up with Christmas music in my head and the yearning for WINTER and SNOW.

Wouldn't you know it, we've been having snow. This is the second dumping in two weeks and I'm LOVING IT because I keep wanting MORE December....

Fireplaces blazing, hot chocolate drinking, pumpkin pastries baking, twinkling colored lights covering, fir-tree-smelling WINTER... or more specifically, CHRISTMAS.

As I walked around this morning, it felt as though I was back at my folks' in Vermont - snow crunching under my feet, my nose not unpleasantly cold, my fingers aching around my mug of NOT hot beverage... J had taken and collected his AND my travel mugs in the last month-- I'm sure the pile in the car has become a mountain in the kitchen at his workplace.

He'd better bring them home clean soon is all I can say--- ceramic does NOT stay warm when it's 1 degree outside.

I noticed several things this morning.

The soft powder had frosted the trees, the eaves, the cars, the ground.... unusually for Colorado.

The sky was a light backlit gray; the sun a huge bleary yellow-whitish ball glowing large and too bright against the tree branches outlined against the sky.

The fresh clean smell of ice, the barely there wind caressing my face, with my ears toasty within the confines of my hood...

It felt so good outside this morning.

Upon my return home, I thought to myself: Perhaps I'll listen to Christmas music today. 

I'm not sure why that's okay with me... usually, I'm not an out-of-season-person... but I must admit that fall is my favorite, winter a perfect second, then spring and lastly summer.

Today though, I've received my wish of snow, and it's supposed to snow more.
So, today will be a day of reading, listening to music, watching musicals and drinking hot beverages while snuggled up.

Never mind that it's almost Easter.

Happy Sunday.