Hello Winter!

Hello Winter. We like your shiver-causing chill and falling snow flakes (well, most of the time) during the holiday season, but couldn’t Fall have tarried a while longer. Oklahoma provided us with a Fantastic Fall, enjoyed by all. Lovely temperatures, fanned by a light breeze that cooled us so well we almost forgot Oklahoma’s hot summer.  It’s too early for your arrival Winter. We want Fall to stay with us through Thanksgiving, at least. We need Fall’s just-right afternoon temperatures so we can play football out in the yard after filling up on Thanksgiving’s feast, or at least to know that all outside is well while horizontal on the couch, watching others play football for lots of money. Speaking of football, Winter, your early arrival punted us too quickly into the Christmas season. Good grief. Your too-early cold temps and all that snow got our schedules all confused. I do not need to be singing “It’s Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas” while still gobbling up all that Halloween candy. Yes, I buy candy for Halloween, but live way out in the country where no little kids come to visit as ghosts and goblins. Oh, occasionally a grandchild use to show up, but they are all grown now and would be terribly embarrassed if they had to wear Halloween costumes. We are hopefully awaiting those G-Gs, otherwise known as great-grandchildren, but until them, I have to dispose of all that candy somehow. And what better way is there than to eat it.

Back to you Winter. So I’m humming Christmas songs while munching on another holiday’s candy and while snow is falling outside my window. And we are not the only ones kicked too early into the Christmas season.  Even before the ghost-and- goblin season, we noticed the Christmas decorations going up in stores. Yes, we have heard the myth that stores depend upon the Christmas season to make a profit from year to year. Is that why Christmas is dangled before our eyes while the Halloween costumes haven’t yet gone on sale? Where has Thanksgiving gone? I like Thanksgiving, and the time we use to bring in the harvest and to give thanks for it. We don’t want Thanksgiving to disappear amid the Christmas hustle and bustle. I like the family gathered around that big country table, laden with the feast. I like the camaraderie, and can even put up with a little sibling snipping if laughter follows. We want Thanksgiving to remain, and to lie around recuperating on the following Friday, not Black Friday shopping that starts on Thanksgiving Day for goodness sakes! Shopping? Yes, shopping is my hobby, and my Christmas shopping starts on Dec. 26, every year. Christmas shopping? Yep. I’m done.

So, Winter. Can you hold yourself at bay just a bit longer? Just give us the time to harvest the pumpkins for Halloween and Thanksgiving’s pumpkin pies, and the time to enjoy our families just because we’re families. Give us the time to give thanks and celebrate together without other holiday stresses. And when that is done, bring on those chilly temps and the snow flakes. We will sing those beautiful Christmas songs clear into the New Year. And that’s why we want Winter and Christmas to arrive on the designated schedule, because arriving too early means we will tire of you quickly. Arriving on time means we will be sustained through Winter’s most cold and harsh season with Christmas joy still in our hearts.