A Boyd Winter Wonderland

Guess what time it is...? It's Advent time, and for us that kicks off Christmas Preparation Mode full throttle. Today we got seriously into CPM. Boxes were dragged out, emptied, pretty shiny Christmas things were hung from top to bottom, the wreath found it's favourite place on the front door and you know the best part.... it snowed! Well, technically it snowed yesterday but for once the white flakes weren't washed away by cold rain hours later. It snowed, then the clouds cleared and the sun came out, and we've been enjoying it/freezing ever since.

Clearly we westerners are not used to -5 temperatures, so we are caught somewhere between winter bliss and not coping well due to being totally ill equipped for cold weather, snow and everything that comes with it. It's completely foreign to us on some level, but here is where having kids comes in handy - they don't care. They just enjoy. It's all very simple to them: it snowed so put on your coat and go outside and play until your nose is red and your hands feel like they want to fall off, then come in for hot cocoa, warm up, get your coat back on, go out side and repeat. And don't complain, because we all know it ain't lasting very long. Just enjoy it while you have it, and deal with tomorrow tomorrow. Kids are very in the moment. They teach me a lot about that.

Anyhow, here we are in our winter bliss:

See the sun peeking out in the distance. This was taken around 7:30 am - oh yes, the childhood excitement for snow waits for nothing. The coffee hadn't even finished brewing yet and we were already outside.

So clearly when I say it "snowed" I mean we got 1 cm or less. Nevertheless, she loved it as far as firsts go.

And here is Jake "shoveling" the snow dust with a garden shovel.  As I said, we westerners aren't used to snow, and are thus rarely equipped. At least I speak for us four Boyds when I say this. Other Vancouver Islanders may well have been ready with snow tires and street salt. We were not among them. 

Moving on to decorations. My Christmas Village is up and running folks. Ain't she a beauty.

I love Christmas Villages. They are almost as good as snow globes. It's a perfect picture of a perfect life in a perfect wintery world. In a world where life just isn't perfect no matter how hard you try, it's nice to have a little escape into a winter wonderland, don't you agree?  If not leave me alone to my romantic delusions - they make me happy.

This reminds me, did I ever tell you about how my husband proposed to me one September evening by setting up a life size winter wonderland. How could I say no? 

Happy winter wonderlanding everyone.