This is always my very favorite time of year. I still get that burning excitement every day like I did as a child during the month of December. I love to pile my kids in the car and drive slowly through the neighborhoods to see the beautiful lights people have put up. I love assembling the annual gingerbread house with my kids. I love making Christmas cookies, sitting by the tree and a fire with a good book, and singing carols at the top of my lungs in my car. I don't think I will ever grow out of it. As I see my children discover the Christmas spirit, the magic is just as real as ever. Dallin asked me yesterday if he would ever get to play in the snow again. I tell him about the Christmases when he did get to go outside in the snow, make snowmen and snowangels. He doesn't really remember it. There is good and bad to being in Tucson during the holidays. For one, the first time I took them around our neighborhood to look at lights, I was riding my bike with Malynn and Ethan in our trailer. I cracked up yesterday at Target when I saw people running from their cars into Target in the rain. Some people were wearing their rarely used scarves and hats and others splashed through the puddles in shorts and flip-flops (which are worn all year long here.) During Thanksgiving time, we would open the windows so the house would be cool enough to warrant a fire in the fireplace! Still, when the temperatures dip into the 40s, we love to pretend that we are living in a winter wonderland. People here go all out to decorate for Christmas, even going so far as to lighting up the cacti! It may not quite feel like home, but I love it all the same.
