Snow!

That's all the title this post needs. It is fabulous outside, with official totals being 5-8 inches. Normally in a year we get about 9 inches total. It is so incredibly beautiful outside and the kids are excited to go out and build a snowman. It is really windy today and the wind chill is pretty far down there. I'm not sure it would be worth the bundling to spend 3 minutes out there then jet back in to the warmth. I have some gifts I'm itching to wrap. I need to do the last-minute gift check to make sure I have everything I planned for everyone. I don't have what I need for Neall. I have no clue what to get him. I'm thinking a magazine subscription. I also have a package to go out. I hope to goodness that it makes it on time. It's full of stocking stuffers for another mama. It will go out Priority Monday. I hope that's enough. I really need to look at stocking stuffers, I know I don't have all that I need for them. I love the holidays!

Pics will be added later when I get the urge to crawl out from under this warm blanket to get the camera.

We had a fantastic evening last night. We were at Dawn's house for a Solstice/Winter/Holiday party. It was good food, good friends, good fun! The noise level in the house was joyful with so many happy children. The kids had such a good time that at one point they were on another plane of existance. They were oblivious to adult presence and were masters at manipulating their own play experience. It was fantastic to watch. Nothing like a great party followed by 6 inches of snow to get you in the holiday spirit. I woke up humming holiday songs.

And while I'm at it. To the "we've taken Christ out of Christmas and I'm the only one going to heaven because you all are sinners" guy, shut up. Blah, blah, we've all heard. This isn't news anymore. Those fundamentalists of you who choose to believe this have entirely missed the point. I'm going to be my usual blunt self here and say "then find him". If Christ has left your christmas, it's on you. You can't find him here. You're never going to find Christ in Christmas at my house because we celebrate Solstice. Your rantings are falling upon finger plugged ears. I'm also going "lalalalalalalala" so I can't hear you. If Christ has left YOUR CHRISTMAS then FIND HIM if that's important to you. You know, the whole lead by example thing. Screaming at me that I'm going to hell probably isn't going to help you achieve your goal, just sayin. If Christmas lights are blasphemous, well, you're right. Not sure what Christians say is symbolic about lights, perhaps the stars??? Well, for Pagans lights are symbolic of the SUN/light returning to the earth after the longest (ie: darkest) night of the year. It's the BIRTH of the SUN. Not the SON, the SUN, which happens to be symbolic of god (note the lack of capitalization, hee-hee). It's somewhat well-known (at least people *I* know) that much of the symbolism of Christmas was derived from Pagan roots. That's not to say that we are better. That's just an observation that Christians didn't come up with this stuff on their own. They had help. Church leaders, in an attempt to make Pagan folks feel more at home in the church, adopted some of the traditions. In my opinion that's a load of crap, but at least we've acknowledged that Pagan influence is a part of Christian traditions.

As I type this my kids have changed the channel. What are they watching? News? Nope. Cartoons? Nope. INFOMERCIAL! "To clean it you use a WIPE mama, that's all. And we can get 2! if we order right now." It's the Express sandwich maker.