Let it Shine, Let it Shine, Let it Shine

Ho ho ho and a bottle of rum, it's the holiday season! Lots of presents went out today (check the post below for awards) and apparently this Monday there's a big Merry Kissfest brewing in the writing blogosphere. I'll be under the mistletoe blowing you all kisses and hoping you'll do the same. If you're playing, this Monday (the first day of winter) post a kissing scene from your wip or an old manuscript you like. Woo hoo! Let's get our jingle on!

AND...

This Monday also starts Unplug Week, (if you have no idea what that is, go HERE). I will be taking shameless advantage of unplugging to catch up with life and spend some quality time with the family... and maybe my wip!

Life is at the expected level of Holiday Crazy over here, but I'm loving the warm weather. Coldness makes me whiny and insufferable, so it's good that I live in a place where I can see the snow and drive to the snow but do not have to actually live in the snow. I'll admit it though, yesterday when it reached eighty degrees I felt bizarre walking around in a tank top the week before Christmas. My part of California means I happen to live in a place where ear muffs are something my daughter wears to school on "crazy" day, and people dazzle up their cliched palm trees with twinkling lights. I like it. I'm not saying I hate snow. If I find a pot of gold, after buying my glam O.C. residence and a beach house in Hawaii, I am so getting a fabulous cabin in the mountains. To visit. And to have a place to warm up and sip white mochas before driving back to the warm, sunny valley where my kind, the coldblooded, freezing-toed, honey-I-need-your-jacket kind, belong. Maybe some of you who live in winter snow, as in, every day for weeks (months? I don't know... you tell me, snow-people. How does it work?), can enlighten me, but here's what goes through my mind at the end of a day in Wrightwood:

Ohhhh no, this is so not for me. Teeth chattering? And sitting in cold cars? And the kind of bone-deep freezingness that makes you feel like some super-villain blew his ice breath on you and you had to battle through the blast with the sheer force of your will? No-no-no children, it would not be fun to live in the snow, but it'll be fun again next Saturday. Let's go home!

That kind of thing on a daily basis would make me extremely whiny. No one would be my friend anymore. I'm annoying enough in my fake L.A. coldness, complaining about being freezing when the temperature dips anywhere below sixty, begging my husband to get me Starbucks, frustrating him with all the extra blankets ("Really, Diana? A fleece pullover and a wool cap? I feel like I'm sleeping next to the grandpa on Transformers. Seriously, take off the hat. Fine, I'll turn on the heater."). 

Anyway, I admire people who love living in the snow, all red-cheeked and cheerful in their fluffy clothes and adorably frosting-topped houses all winter. I may not want to live in the snow, but I am extremely grateful that I live close to it. If I were still in Miami and had no prospects of snow days at all, I would feel like something was missing... maybe. :)

So what's your take? Should snow stay up on the mountains where it belongs? Or are you all sparkly-eyed-excited when the city is a blanket of white? Let it snow or let it shine?

Before I go I want to say, you blogger friends amaze me. It seems like the holidays haven't made a dent in your blogging, meanwhile I can barely keep up with all the holiday craziness of shopping (which I hate) and wrapping (which I hate) and the kids' Christmas shows and practices (which I love) and preparing for family get-togethers (also love)-- the list is beyond endless. If I don't comment back, a thousand hugs and sorries, but I will be back on Monday to post my kissing scene and officially unplug for Unplug Week (I don't count Stephanie's party as plugging back in. It's a party!). Have a great weekend everyone!!