cold, dark & snowy days

it's strange how fast the days fly by. especially at this time of the year. it's almost as though the year itself is racing us to the finish line. but in january time slows down. february, too. by the time march rolls around i always feel like winter has been here forever. like the spring will never come. and this year we have allready had an unusual amount of cold days and snow! personally, i'm almost done with winter. i would be very happy, if winter lasted until mid january and we'd have tulips blooming by mid february. however, do not misunderstand me. i do like winter. as long as it's snowy, not too cold and nice and short. so, no... i don't want to live in florida or anything like that.

sunday morning we drove out of town to get ourselves a little christmas tree. for many years we have been getting potted trees for christmas (and most years they have lived to see not only one christmas, but two!!!) it always made me feel better to be able to plant the tree in the spring, in some friend's parent's back yard. however, this year i had to come to the painful realizations that none of our planted trees have survived. they must cut too much of the root system, when potting the trees. that's my guess. so, this time we decided to go out and chop ourselves a fresh little tree from one of those tree growing places, where you walk into a field and pretty much every tree is perfect, every one is grown for the exact purpose of being butchered during the month of december and even though the landscape looks pretty, there is a certain sadness to it. indeed, on these farms, every tree is beautiful, yet, we still spent a good half hour walking around, trying to find 'the one'. it was an absolutely gorgeous day - snow falling, not too cold, just like this picture... next year, we hope to find a smaller, less commercial tree farm!