it's very odd... usually i start looking forward to the holiday season in the middle of october and forcefully keep myself from getting too excited about christmas already because i love autumn and when i start anticipating christmas in autumn i tend to overlook autumn itself and then i get sad about the fact that i missed it when it's over.
not this year... i took these photos on october 24th. we went out for a walk up one of the hills that surround us here. the sky was blue and the sunlight was glaring and still very warm. i'm so very glad we took this walk because after a couple of very windy days during the week after that most of the trees were bare and all that was left was dry (or soggy wet) brown on the ground. T and R and i had great fun one day walking home from kindergarten whirling up dry leaves... i enjoyed autumn immensely this year. we even had our own tree with fall foliage in the living room:
(the tree will stay but the leaves will make way for christmas/winter related crafting projects like papercut snowflakes and some colourful birdies.)
this is towards the middle of november already and the last of the leaves are bravely holding on. the sun is setting early and the skies have mostly been storm grey... it's just stunning when the north sky turns dark and the last sunrays turn golden on whatever they hit...
november has been very weird: while we usually freeze our butts off at the annual town's fairground on the weekend of november 15th, stomping our feet and clutching big mugs of steaming hot punch too keep warm while the kids have fun on the merry-go-round, this year we had up to 17°C! afternoon temperature. it was crazy...
T loved it (as usual). R was still a little sceptical - the whole idea of sitting in a fake car (or train or firetruck or tractor or racecar) and going somewhere (even when it's just round in circles) without mum was not so appealing to her... for me, somehow all the tinkle and twinkle, the bustle and the smell of sugar coated almonds and cotton candy never loses its charm... (until you are there and have to take care not to lose your kids in the crowds and keep them from eating a pound of sugar in one go of course.) no... it really was very nice to go there with the little ones and see T enjoy the rides and watch R get excited over a helium-balloon (until she accidentally poked it with the fork form the mini donuts she had somehow gotten hold of) and since it's only once a year...
another stunning sky...
now this is the end of november. this was our view last wednesday... everything was muted and freezing cold and covered in ice crystals. it's been a while since we've had this sort of white frost.
soo beautiful...
and then it started snowing on wednesday evening and T was very excited thursday morning and could not wait to leave for kindergarten - in full snow gear so he could get busy with the inch of snow that had fallen over night. even though i had the camera with me i forgot to take pictures... i don't know why... maybe it was because it was so lovely to walk under all the snowy trees. the wind occasionally blew some chunks of fluffyness off the branches and they came floating down so soft and gently... (the snow was very light and soft, kind of like the foam in a bubble bath.) R loved watching it, pointing and exclaiming excitedly. T had to brush snow off of everything within reach and wanted to start a snowball fight (once it had snowed some more). sadly towards the middle of the day it got a little warmer and it all melted away and for next week we have up to 12°C forecast... so no more snow in the near future...
it's the first sunday of advent this weekend and to be honest: it took me by surprise. not that i didn't know of course, but it came so suddenly in a way. it was "in 3 weeks" and then it was "next week" and now it's almost "tomorrow" and i feel like i'm not at all prepared for the holiday season... i have no decorations up, i have only a couple of ideas for christmas presents - most of them handmade which means rather time consuming, i'm not in the mood for baking and crafting at all. but i have decided that i won't let that bother me this year. i'm going to do everything one at a time and one after the other and when the mood strikes. because when i get stressed about christmas things and try to make christmasy things happen because i think they have to happen i get depressed because i can't enjoy it.
just like i can't enjoy autumn when i already feel like christmas - i can't enjoy christmas when i don't feel like christmas... what a dilema... hahaha!