It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas!!!

The first snowfall of the year

When we first arrived in North Carolina, I remember asking a colleague if we could expect snow during the winter.

"It hasn't snowed once in the six years that I've been here," was her reply.

Shortly thereafter, we were hit with a (child size) blizzard. Five inches of snow covered the central region of North Carolina. School was canceled for three days straight, and all the essential food items had been ransacked from the grocery stores as though the War of Revelation had begun (see our post on 2/6/10). Celeste and I didn't mind our old wintery friend snow, while those around us treated it as though it were extra-terrestrial - strange and threatening.

Fast forward to last night, when we received our first (and maybe last) snow of the season. This time it was a modest 1-2 inches, but it still kept people locked in their houses and off the streets. Needless to say, it was a lonely drive and a meager crowd at church today.

For us, we couldn't be happier. Seeing as we won't be returning to Utah for Christmas, this little skiff may be the only taste of a "White Christmas" we'll have. And call me old fashioned, but I've always had a hard time getting into the Christmas spirit when it's 70-degrees outside and people are driving around with their convertible tops down like they're some kind of bigshot. Snow makes the spirit of the season come alive, and it's a joy and a privilege to build a snowman, make a snow fort, or put a snowball down your little sister's shirt. While this storm's snowfall won't last through the night, it was a baby Christmas miracle just the same.

To go along with our Winter Wonderland out here, we decided to buy a Christmas tree and decorate the crap out of it - something we didn't do last year, probably because holiday decorating seemed too luxurious and comfortable for the sweat-soaked, feverish lives we were living. This year's been much easier on the body and soul, so we drove into town and found a man selling trees he had grown on his own farm in the boonies of Carolina. He was a good ole country boy with a Southern accent as thick as a heffer. I pretended to be one too, despite the fact that I had driven up in a Honda Fit. I even brought gloves to make me look like I knew what the heck I was doing when it came to Christmas trees.

Our first North Carolina Christmas Tree

We brought the tree home, busted out the Christmas decorations, then started hanging lights and ornaments while "Elf" played in the background. We even had cookies and milk. It was on that night, during that cute little moment of tree trimming, that we finally started to feel the Spirit of Christmas.

The other major event of the week was our one-day weekend getaway to Washington, D.C. We've had plenty of these over the last year and a half, but never before to watch a Utah State sporting event. When we found out USU was going to be playing Georgetown at the Verizon Center in D.C., we couldn't help ourselves (or Celeste would say, I couldn't help myself).

The game didn't go the way we wanted, and we ended up losing by 17 points. But the game was close for the entire first half, and it was fun just to watch us play such a talented team (they were ranked 16th in the country at the time). The game also allowed us to reconnect with dozens of old friends and alumni from Utah State: Pres. Stan Albrecht, VP Ross Peterson, former VP Michael Kennedy, and my old friends David Lee, Tanner Cooley, Chris Barney, Nate Needham, Scott O'Dell, Jason Soffe, Tristan Anderson, among others. But for the game itself, we had a wonderful time. Next time we'll just have to remember to score more points.

Pregame Alumni Breakfast in downtown D.C.

If only we could have kept that lead.