Hello, December. Welcome.

The above photo was taken last winter by my talented father-in-law, Steve, after a big snow in Colorado Springs. Steve and Carolyn's yard backs up to a creek and long trail, and deer are frequent visitors. I love this photo because of the sense of peace that washes over me whenever I look at it. If I were to give it a name, I would call it “Tranquility.” I find myself wanting to be right there in that scene (from the comfort and warmth of inside the house, of course). Perhaps I could pop my head out the back door and say hello. “Hey deer! How’s it going? Love the fuzzy ears. Seriously. Can I touch them? No? Okay. Do you guys need anything out there? Hot chocolate? Tea? No? Okay. Well, keep doin’ whatchyer doin’. I’ll be in here if you need anything.” This photo is only a teeny tiny taste of what Steve can do with a camera. He is quite skilled at capturing Colorado’s beauty, from it’s grand, sweeping landscapes to the flora and fauna that grace them. Sidenote and quick plug: If any of you are ever looking for “Colorado-y” photos for framing purposes, greeting cards, etc, then he is your man. Let me know and I will put you in contact with him.

I share this photo with you not only because I think that it’s beautiful, but it is also my little way of ringing in this final month of 2010. For the last two months I have had a picture of a path lined with fall trees on my work computer's desktop. Because today is December 1st, I decided that it was time to switch the background to a wintery scene, in spite of the fact that I think it was something like 65 degrees here in DC today. No true winter for us yet but I know that it will come in due time, at which point I will lament and cry with desperation, “65-degree weather where have you gone?! Why did you leave me?! Where’s the love?!” The deer photo, in all of its loveliness, now adorns my computer screen.

So the work desktop is prepared for the winter season. Check-ity check. As far as any other holiday/seasonal decorating goes…mmm…not so much. My small collection of Christmas decorations is buried in our storage unit downstairs. Throughout the process of organizing our condo, anything that we don’t have an immediate place for or aren’t using on a regular basis has been assigned to the storage unit. But this banishment of superfluous household items has not been executed in an orderly fashion. And needless to say, it goes against every single OCD/organizational cell in my body [shiver…twitch…bwwaahh…...Okay. Inhale. Exhale. Wait for iiiit.......There. I’m over it. Don't mind me. Just talking myself down here. Welcome to crazy town]. If I were to try to pull something out of storage by myself at this stage, it would be akin to playing a large-scale game of Jenga. A game of Jenga that would inevitably end in my being ruthlessly smothered beneath bikes…and camping gear…and dining room chairs…and a microwave…and unused curtain panels…and…Oh my gosh. Is that a spider?! Aaack!...Basically what we’re looking at here is death by storage unit. And while I don’t really fear death, that’s not exactly the way that I want to go, you know?

[Do you get the feeling that the above paragraph is just one long-winded, obnoxious means of making excuses for myself? Yeah, me too. At this point my in-laws would say, “Sounds like a personal problem to me.” And they would be right.]

So with all that being said, we’ll see if Shmoops (that’s the hubby) and I get around to digging said decorations out, or if we’ll wait until December 2011 rolls around. I do love seasonal decorating, though. My mom always used to pull out special decorations for each holiday/season. And for the duration of grades K-5 that’s what happened at school too. Oh, paper snowflakes taped to the classroom window…what joy you brought! But for now, I have my deer photo. At work. On a computer screen. And it is through this photo, with warmth and affection that I say to you, December, “Hello. And welcome.”