Let it Snow....

It doesn't feel like we are ten days from Christmas. Having grown up in upstate NY where we would get on average ten feet of snow a day, there was never any doubt that Christmas was coming. We would tunnel out of home through snow drifts that covered our roofs, and like naked mole rats, slide through a maze of icy tunnels to the mailbox, then find our way back home by following the blinking Christmas lights. NY has its issues, but doing winter right is not one of them.

However, while we did indeed flee to the South precisely because my aching back did not want to shovel another single snowflake, I do miss the snow. I bundle up in all my Christmas furs and boots, and pretty soon am sweating up a storm. Last night, as we prepared to head out to our dog agility class, there was a milky white glow out the windows. It looked like snow! Of course, it was not. Snow comes once every 30,000 years to Charlotte. But it was a close facsimile. It was fog- deep viscous fog that obliterates all forms beyond arm length. As I drove slowly through the fog, we blasted Christmas music on the radio, and it looked like a white-out snowstorm if we squinted.

Asherel pointed out that the Christmas songs were the souped up, jangly variety. All those sweet peaceful tunes I grew up with have been "updated." So we drove in the fog, pretending it was snow, listening to the hiphop Christmas songs, pretending they were the peaceful reminders of Jesus.

And then, Silent Night came on. The same sweet song I grew up with. There were no bass drums thumping in the background so we could dance to the beat. There were no rap singers chanting their accompaniment to Christmas cheer.... just the quiet Silent Night I remembered. I sang along, driving slowly as my headlights lit the fog with an ethereal glow.

"Silent Night, Holy Night, all is calm, all is bright
Round yon virgin mother and child
Holy Infant so tender and mild
Sleep in heavenly peace,
Sleep in heavenly peace.