my thoughts on winter (and it's not even winter yet!)

Yuck, yuck, yuck.

I can't believe winter technically is not even here yet. I already despise it. Yes, the snow was really pretty the other day. Yes, I'm looking forward to Christmas. But otherwise, winter, I don't like you. Don't bother coming this year, if you please.

Why? The number one reason is sickness. You already read about our "Thanksgiving from hell," as my dad called it many times. (Actually, Thanksgiving was nice. It was the days following Thanksgiving which were less than ideal.) It took my husband and me all week to feel normal again, stomach-wise. And then Saturday night, while on a date together (a once or twice a year event that I had been anticipating for quite awhile), I had a relapse. Ugh. In a public restroom. Not. Fun. At. All. Otherwise, the date was great! Then yesterday I woke up feeling like I was getting a cold. A cold. After just finishing up an antibiotic for a sinus infection less than a week ago! What is going on????

Rachel and I are leaving in a few hours to go visit Allecia, Kaden, and new baby Marin. I've been looking forward to it for months. Now I have a cold (not to mention headache issues, which is its own post for some other day) to contend with. But another reason I despise winter is related to this trip....the road conditions. This trip, like I said, has been planned for months. We knew that after Allecia had the baby, Rachel and I would go visit for several days to help entertain Kaden, cook dinner, and try to help out Allecia in any way we could. But everything has to be dependent on the weather in the winter. You can look forward to a visit forever, but unless the weather cooperates, in the winter, you can't count on that visit. Thankfully, it looks like the weather is going to cooperate for the traveling days for this visit, but sometimes it doesn't always work out that way.

For instance, my mom is planning on coming down next week for a couple of days because she's been wanting to make gingerbread men with Rachel. She got her the story, a stuffed gingerbread man, and even a cute little pink gingerbread shirt, and I've been looking forward to it for weeks (Rachel, I'm sure, would be too if she knew about it....but you can't tell that girl anything more than a couple of hours in advance. I made the mistake of telling her about our trip to see Kaden a couple of days ago and I haven't heard the end of it!) But I can't bank on any of it happening because who knows what the weather will be next week. I really hope it works out.

Ugh. Winter, please don't come. You can sprinkle a little more snow so we have a white Christmas (but please don't interfere with any of our travel plans!), and maybe even play out in it a bit (Rachel really, REALLY wants to build a snowman!!) but then you must go away. Got it?

Note: Yes, it really is 5:40 AM....I've been up since 3:30 with way too much on my mind about this trip--I haven't packed, due to the-worst-headache-in-my-life which I dealt with yesterday. As soon as my husband wakes up I'll be springing into action. Meanwhile, I've been making a list and checking it twice...no, three times.....