Distinctly December.

While Autumn still reigns officially until this Saturday, the transition to Winter has most surely come to New England.  This is my first winter in the city: all the winters I was growing up were spent in deep, rural, woodsy New England.  The sort of place where you brought firewood in from the shed before a big storm, where the cardinals flocked in pine boughs and you could follow deer tracks in the snow.  My college winters were spent in a small college town, and the month of December always meant the trip back further North to the rural homestead: I'd split my time between there and Boyfriend's family home, on the rocky, grey, rugged, homey New England Coast.  While some part of me misses that month long reprieve that was winter break during undergrad (despite always working winter breaks, I still had days off, snow days, time to bake and read and christmas shop, and sleep sleep sleeeeeeepp) I am adjusting well enough, I think, to my first December on my own.  Below are some of the things that to me are in some way distinctly winter, distinctly Christmas, or otherwise distinctly December.

Ginger-Honey-Lemon-Kick-Ass-Immuune-Booster

{Image from here}

There are dozens of variations on this recipe: I tweak my own basic one depending on my symptoms.  The basic idea, though, is to make a tea out of ginger, cayenne pepper (just a few dashes!  no more than two or three for me and I have a very high tolerance for spice. when making it for roommates, I add maybe a dash!), cinnamon, raw honey, and lemon.  Pro tips: add the raw honey second to last, after the water has come down from a boil and add the lemon by just sticking it in your cup and pouring the no-longer boiling water on it.  That way you don't boil out any enzymes, yay!

Homemade Chicken Soup

{Image from martinturzak/Photos.com}

Earlier in the fall I bought two free-range, humanely slaughtered rotisserie chickens.  One I turned in to a bunch of soup, the other I ate from for a few days and then turned the carcass in to a kick-ass mass of stock.  I've been busting both out of the freezer generously as the weather has hovered below zero for days at a time.

The Nutcracker

{Image is the property of Boston Ballet}

It isn't the holidays for me without a trip to the Nutcracker, a tradition that was started when I was a little girl - and then a big girl, all the way through high school senior - when I danced in the Nutcracker.  Now if I'm not part of a production, I simply have to go see one.  Being a staff member with BB allows me discount tickets to see one of the best versions out there!  Taking Mum and Sissy to see it was a highlight of my post-grad life so far, and the kick off to my Christmas.

    

                        

Books!  While it's frustrating to not have a million and one arts-based projects on my plate for three or four weeks, it is undeniably nice to have time to "refresh the creative well," by re-engaging in my other passions and hobbies.  Nurturing my brain, curiosity, and language skills.  Plus, nothing screams "December," to me quite like snuggling up under my softest brown blanket (a gift from Boyfriend) with my fuzzy socks mug of tea, and a just-for-fun book to read beneath the Christmas lights.

SNOW.

{Image from jetsetter.com}

Because obviously snow = winter.  First snow on the same night as Nutcracker = proper December.

Honorable Distinctly December Mentions:

*Chocolate chip cookies 

*Pandora Christmas Station

*Fuzzy socks

*This nifty cold I've got that's making me so tired I'm in bed by ten but can't for the desperate life of me actually fall asleep.  Cue more immune-boosting tea.  

*Christmas budgeting, Christmas shopping's more practical cousin.

Weekly Gratitude 8/5

Ok.  I'll be honest (not that I could hide it, I mean everything is archived after all).  This is much more a "gratitude of the month."  Woops!  So here is a list of those things I am most grateful for this week - and over the past month!

-I am grateful for this new month.

-Thank you for the chance to be a positive influence on my Camp kids.  Some of them are happy, healthy, loved, energetic, clean, smiling.  Others coolly inform me their parents are only bringing them because they're sick of them.  Some come with healthy, filling lunches and bright waterbottles.  Others come with Little Debbies Treats and Capri Sun pouches (and I'm not talking for snack or dessert folks.  I'm talking for their lunch).  I'm grateful for the chance to run, play, nourish, and explore with them.

-I'm grateful for employment.

-Thank you for friends who I never miss a beat with, no matter the gap between speaking.  For friends who understand, and never kick me when I'm down.  For loyal and loving and funny people to fill my days with.

-I'm grateful for finally getting to see Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Part 2 this week.  I cried from the WB logo virtually to King's Cross.  In more ways than I can fully explain, and cliche as it may be, Harry Potter was a huge part of my childhood.  Mischief Managed, friends.

-Thank you for a Boyfriend who not only went with me to see HP7P2 (and for someone who never truly got into the books, going with a, erm, "fan" like me is a less than thrilling prospect) but buying the ticket and patting my back when the tears started to fall and not laughing once the lights went up on my splotchy face.

-Thank you for the chance to write a post for my friend's (much bigger, and very popular) blog!  More on that soon!

-I'm grateful that somehow, by the skin of my teeth and my mom's sacrifice, I'll be scrapping my way into affording this semester.

Autumn

I've never been a fan of "Favorite Questions."  What is your favorite book?  movie? food?  memory?  board game?  insert-right-here? What if you don't have one favorite?  If you're an equal opportunity-enjoyer?  Or you have a small list of favorites?  Not just one?  I, in case you cannot tell, am not a single-favorite-haver in most cases.  This applies to movies, tv, colors, gemstones, memories, and seasons.  I think the closest thing to a very favorite season I have is Winter. . . but I love them all and have favorite parts of each.  Being indecisive enough to feel that way, I have a little ritual.  At the beginning of every season, I like to think about what I love about that particular time of year.  It's a gratitude exercise that makes me feel more connected: connected to nature/the season, to everyone who has ever experienced these same joys, to my own inner person.  I promise way down deep inner me is a very positive person!  This gratitude exercise reminds me to slow down, something I don't do often enough.  And it makes me smile. Honestly, some days, thats reason enough to do (almost) anything!


While it's not officially Fall yet, the temperatures and books and sweaters tell my poor little heart otherwise. . . so here is what I love about Autumn.

*Scarves!*

They're so warm and cozy and instantly make me feel somehow more fashionable.  I mean, who looks bad in a scarf?!?

*The way the air smells.  When you're walking as briskly as you can towards your car/class/job/grocery store and you take a quick inhale.  That sweet, clear, frost-is-in-the-air smell, without the sharpness and sting of winter air.  It's more moist, more earthy.  

It instantly calms me and elevates my mood. . . don't you just want to take a deep breath of that beauty?

*Mornings.  Ok, so I'm definitely not a morning person.  I'm more like a mid-day person, really.  But there is something about Autumn mornings that make me feel very alive and yet soothed at the same time.  That morning light, softer than at any other time of year.  The way it filters through the changing leaves, so they almost glow.  It's stiller, more isolated, less electric than a summer morning.  You can almost hear the tress breathing, if you listen hard enough. . .

*Books.  This is sort of the opposite of mornings, because I am a book person all the way!  I love turning pages in the sun during the Summer, skimming chapters in a window during Spring, snuggling with a book under the blankets in Winter.  But the fall is the very best time for  books!  Even if they are not textbooks/mandatory I love to purchase books in the fall, so I can enjoy the feel and the familiarity of a new book.  The joy of inhaling that beautiful air and turning the page, knowing there is something fascinating waiting for me when I do.  Honestly, I can't often afford non-mandatory textbooks.  Thank goodness the library is the next best thing!  If I get everything done I need to this week, that is how I am rewarding myself this weekend. . . a quick trip to the Library.

*The Foliage.  This is one of the greatest joys of living in New England!