Feeling more like winter....

Well, it's finally starting to feel like winter and I'm not sure how I feel about it.  I should be overly thrilled that it's stayed long for so long, and I am, but I think it's kind of spoiled me a little bit.  The 70s are great in Iowa and I wish they could last all winter long!


But winter decided to come anyway and now I'm not so ready for it to be here.  For the past week or so it's been cloudy, no sun at all.  The kind of sky that looks like it could snow just any minute, but it's still a little too warm for snow.  The highs have been in the 40s, which is cold to begin with, but then add strong winds and it is down-right freezing outside!  We have broken out the winter coats and hats/mittens.  I have even broken out my imitation Uggs for the cold mornings when I have to take Natalli to school.  It's even cold in the house, but I refuse to let the heat come on any more than it already is, after all, it's not that cold yet!  


But the cold weather has really gotten me in the Christmas spirit this year.  Usually I am beyond annoyed that everyone seems to jump right over poor Thanksgiving without even a passing glance.  But this year I don't seem to be bothered by the Christmas decorations already lining the hallways of stores and the endless Christmas songs being played over the store speakers.  In fact, I somewhat welcome it.  Greg and I have already started our Christmas shopping and I'm eager to get my tree out of the basement and start decorating it!  (I'm making sure though that the tree doesn't come up before Thanksgiving...plus we might be getting a new one, so I'll have to wait and see about that first).  I've even decided that I am doing Black Friday shopping this year.  I've never gone before, so it should be interesting.  Greg and I decided we are going to be nerds about it and write down what we want to get and what store it's at so we just aren't walking around the stores aimlessly.


And over the weekend, it was nice outside (and by nice I mean it wasn't in negative temps and there was no snow), so we decided to be eager beavers and put up our Christmas lights.  I'm pretty sure we are one of the first houses in our town to have done so and I can almost guarantee that we are the first house to actually have them lit at night.  We bought new lights this year since we have a new house, we wanted a new look.  Besides the fact that Greg had to go up on the roof and take down a strand and put a new strand up (because he forgot to check to see if they worked before he put them up there), they turned out spectacular!

What do you think?

Now if we could just have winter without the snow-covered streets and the crazy drivers, I'd be good.  Bring on Christmas!  I'm so excited, I don't think I can stand it!  Sorry Thanksgiving, but I've decided I'm skipping you this year.  ....Might as well join on the bandwagon, right!?