Thursday 17 December 2009: Let it snow let it snow let it snow!

Heidi says: Snow!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Now I am really dreaming of a white christmas!

Christmas, aaaah, christmas. I don't think there is any time of year that makes me so nostalgic and so warm inside as christmas and the holidays. There is something about christmas programmed in me since my early childhood. I used to love the whole atmosphere around it when I was little and I never stopped loving it. It has something to do with what we did as a family. We always celebrated with first going to church for the christmas mass, then with a nice dinner and only after midnight we gave each other presents. We always had a christmas tree and we would only decorate the tree when the whole family was there and ready.

At school there was a good christmas atmosphere too. I remember practising christmas songs with a little choir of school children for a week or two and then finally singing those songs in church at the christmas mass (yes, i went to a catholic school). Those moments were so nice, and the memories of them are so valuable now. You could call me a nostalgic person. But there was more to it. I also programmed an idea of what christmas should be in my head by watching american movies. Which made me believe from early age on that we weren't doing it completely right, the celebrating I mean. In my head, it had to be even cosier, with more people, with singing mellow songs standing around the tree... I regret that I watched those movies then and got so carried away that sometimes I didn't realise at the moment itself how wonderful our christmasses were. Because I know now. But now is too late.

So, here's the deal: I have to enjoy these moments now! I am home, I have a beautiful christmas tree, I have nice (exotica lounge and a very nice fifties compilation from Sarah's mom Judy) christmas music, I have SNOW, I organised a christmas walk for Yma's school which is happening tomorrow, I have friends and family who also love christmas... It's time to enjoy CHRISTMAS!

Sarah says:

I liked Heidi's text above and it made me want to generate a word cloud of it so here it is and it could be a Christmas card in itself! :-)

around atmosphere carried celebrated childhood children choir christmas church dinner early enjoy exotica family going happening head heidi home judy love mass moments movies nice nostalgic people practising presents programmed realise really regret remember school singing snow something sometimes songs think tree used valuable walk warm watched whole wonderful yes

created at TagCrowd.com

My mom arrived this morning and brought the snow with her from Michigan! I have to say that we both look pretty good for not having had much sleep. I woke up really early to a snowstorm but luckily the highway was pretty clear and my mom's plane was more than 2 hours late!
Ayla was of course happy to see her grandma at school when we went to pick her up.
And my mom was happy to see Ayla of course!
That's me above at 6am this morning trying to figure out if I should head out into the snow or find a plan B. I took the chance and all was okay! It's getting more dangerous now that it is getting colder!
And above the very lovely snow this morning on my street! :-) If you want to see more photos of this morning's first Belgian snow click into this photo album!