bears.

in the spirit of the season and with hopes to slip into it, my mother and i chased the cold yesterday all the way up to big bear mountain. it wasn't quite cold, but it was just chilly enough to put on a sweater and feel like perhaps the season we have waited for is indeed just around the corner. i'm not a shopper...it's just not my thing...but shopping with my mom is always a good experience and so we made our way through crowded little shops with wooden doors and doorknobs you have to actually turn to get inside. we didn't buy much (that wasn't really the point of it), but we did come away with some of the best beef jerky i've ever tasted, a couple of wood-wick candles that flicker and crackle (one for home, one for church), and some scone mix and clotted cream. i almost (almost) spent two hundred dollars on some victorian black leather lace-up boots...they were beautiful...but they didn't have them in anything bigger than a seven. i felt for a fleeting moment what cinderella's ugly step sister must have felt like, but then i counted it grace that i didn't spend such a ridiculous amount of money on shoes that would probably cause my feet an uncomfortable amount of clausterphobia anyway.

it was prime rib for dinner...like we needed ANOTHER meal after the Thanksgiving festivities...but it was fantastic and i enjoyed some of the best chardonnay i've experienced yet. the highlight of the day for me was getting a call from my ashlee, whom i had hoped to visit on thanksgiving day. "it's a good thing you didn't," she said, "we're up in big bear for thanksgiving." and so, just a block away i got to see one of my favorite people and one of my favorite families and share the first moments of christmas spirit with them. it was good. just very good.

today it's decorating this apartment my parents have lived in for eight years for the last time. a little bit sad...especially with Uknown looming so precariously above us...but it's christmas and it's my mom and it's our new wood-wicked candle and mannheim steamroller and charlie brown and twinkle lights and ornaments that tell the stories of our lives and coffee and cinnamon. and that is good.

welcome home, christmas. thank you for the warm fuzzies you always bring.