TheBanyanTree: Christmastime in the City

[Margaret R. Kramer]

Well, well, well.  We actually had a little snowstorm in December.  For the
past few years, our snow has come in at the end of winter rather than at the
beginning.  We’ve had more brown Christmases than I care to count.  So it
was quite exciting to see the snow flying and piling up yesterday.

Of course, we knew about 80 days in advance that we would get this weather
system coming through, so I had plenty of time to get to the grocery store
and buy some food to get us through this weekend.  Ray checked the
snowblower, put some gas in it, and it’s ready to go.

The first Saturday in December for the past seven years has been reserved
for the Reindeer Run.  It’s a 5K around Lake Harriet in Minneapolis.  I love
the race, although it’s not actually a race, no one keeps track of
individual times, because Lake Harriet is a beautiful lake with a great
bandshell.  The houses around Lake Harriet are not mansions, but a step
below mansions, large old houses with so much history stored inside of them.

I love this race because many people dress up as elves, reindeer, Santa, the
Grinch, and lots of other crazy costumes.  And every year, the weather is
different.  We’ve participated in some warm Reindeer Runs, when it’s been
downright balmy, and then last year, the wind chill was below zero.  My son
went with me in Susan’s place, who had to work, and cursed every frozen step
around the lake.  The boys got a little bit of frost bite.  It was horrible.

This year, we knew the storm was rolling in.  The winds were howling and it
was cold.  The snow began to fall on our way to Minneapolis.  By the time we
got to the lake, it was snowing pretty hard.  We couldn’t even see the other
side of the lake.  The waves were chopping and the snow was falling.

Susan and I stood in a warm tent waiting for the race to start.  When we saw
everyone move through the starting lane, we went out and braved the
elements.  The first half mile was cold and icky, but as we kept moving, our
bodies warmed up and it didn’t feel so bad.  The snow was packed down on the
sidewalk, so it wasn’t slippery.  By the time we were halfway around the
lake, the wind had died down, and it was actually pleasant to be outside in
the snow running around a beautiful lake.  My Christmas spirit kicked in.

After the Run, we took the back roads home, not wanting to chance the
maniacs on the freeway.  The first snowstorm is always a retraining session
for winter driving for some people and I didn’t want to be playing bumper
cars.  It took a while to get back home, but we made it.

I spent the rest of the afternoon putting up the Christmas decorations.  I
have way too many for our smaller house, but I keep dragging them out and
displaying them.  We have five small table top Christmas trees which go into
our bedroom, my office, on top of the entertainment center in the living
room, the kitchen, and then we place one by the kitchen entrance from the
dining room.  Ray helped out by decorating all of them.  I’m not a big tree
decorator, so I appreciate his patience and artistic ability in trimming the
trees.

We’ll do the big Christmas tree next weekend.  I like dribbling out
Christmas a bit at time and then I’m not so overwhelmed.

The snow kept coming down.  It was very pretty.  While I was filling the
bird feeders, the dogs raced around the backyard.  Even dogs enjoy the snow.

We’re not the type of people who run outside every 15 minutes to shovel
snow.  Nah, we wait until the darn storm is over and then do it ONCE!  Even
though it might be more snow to blow and shovel, why kill ourselves several
times when we can kill ourselves just one time.  That’s our project this
morning.  Actually, we didn’t get that much snow.  I’d say just from looking
outside, we got between 4-6 inches.  It’s such a novelty to have snow this
time of year.  And it’s just enough to get me in that Christmas spirit.

Margaret R. Kramer
margaretkramer at comcast.net
margaret.kramer at polarispublications.com

A Christmas candle is a lovely thing;
It makes no noise at all,
But softly gives itself away.
~Eva Logue