Hello December!
Yes guys, we have made it to this wonderful time of year. Festive happiness and music echos throughout my decked out halls and oh the Christmas tree glows with lights around its lovely branches. The nights are silent and holy indeed, as we celebrate the coming of Emmanuel, God with us, on that first noel. Like the night of our dear Saviors birth in the little town of Bethlehem, silent stars go by as the nights deepen in length and wintry chill.
Or maybe that's just Jack Frost nipping at my nose.
But even as it's beginning to look a lot like Christmas, I do not see a white Christmas yet to come, considering that past Christmases have only been frightful at times, but never snowy, just like it is every year. Except for that freak winter in 1999... Yet I will still gather all ye faithful and sing hearty carols of let it snow, let it snow, let it snow...please? I'll let you know if we are joyful and triumphant, but I still doubt that folks will dress up like Eskimos this year, bah humbug.
Well, that was fun.
As I write this rather festive post, and Vince Guaraldi's A Charlie Brown Christmas is softly filling me with festive cheer, I look outside and wonder what it would be like to see snow gently release from dense clouds to glide through chilled air and blanket a town in white. There has always been a very early childhood image that comes to my mind when I think of Christmas and winter: a lane stretching long and far filled with cozy Christmas shops and lights strung from shop to shop, illuminating the streets in dappled pools of festive light, and everything is covered in snow.
But this is not to be in my town. I guess I can't miss what I have not experienced, but really, wishing for a fantasy and receiving a reality instead can induce a similar emotion of longing, even if that longing is just a thought of what could be. This only means that my winter wonderland is special in it's own way. Family traditions of Christmas movies with a log on the fire, caroling out in the, uh, maybe cold weather with close friends, church productions, listening to Christmas music non stop, tea and coffee, and lots of candles. All will be merry and bright no matter what the weather is outside, for it is what's on the inside that counts.
This unfulfilled idea does not damper my spirit in the least, but has propelled my desire to create that which I have only dreamed into a reality, to let my imagination pour into something tangible, even if it is simply adding snow to an image. So, in the middle of June this year, I looked at this image in a new light and brought this fanciful thought of snow in my little town of Bakersfield to life. Yet with this idea brought to life, it can never replace the special Christmas that I have.
Merry Christmas everybody!
