Ready or not, winter is coming

I think turkey's can take a break now between now and Christmas, but I think this is THE cutest idea.  If we go out for Thanksgiving, then I will do a big turkey spread on Christmas, but since I just did the works ... not sure what Christmas will bring.  But do love this!  Not sure I could eat it, makes it look kind of ... wrong!

So we have eaten turkey night, after night, after night.  Last night I called it Thanksgiving Two and we finished up the last of the mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes and stuffing.  There is still so much turkey left it's kind of ridiculous.  I am going to make a few turkey pot pies and freeze them.  No one here, including myself, wants any more turkey.  Not even sandwiches.  NO MORE TURKEY!

So now it is time to move on to Christmas.  The kids reminded me that we now decorate our house.  I'd forgotten.  Yes, really, I did!  Maddie reminded me that I had bought a ton of decorations and really done up the mantle and stairways, etc.  I guess I hadn't realized at the time that it was a tradition!  I think that is partly because the mantle display was sort of garish and I thought, in a way, ironic.  BUT NOT TRADITION!  I don't remember as a child glomming on to things and wanting to repeat them (otherwise known as tradition, I guess) but these kids crave it.  I said it was time for a smaller tree -- if only because the gi-normous ones cost a fortune.  But I saw their little faces, and spent yesterday afternoon rearranging the living room to accommodate our traditional-sized tree!  Geesh.

We had our first snow event on Saturday.  First this crazy squall came in and just pummelled the house for a half an hour.  It was a total white-out and the wind was insane.  Then the blue skies followed and left a perfect winter wonderland.  And it also left the roads a disaster.  Peter and I headed down to Concord to catch a movie, and when I pulled on to the highway, it was not a good sign to see the cars crawling.  The interstate was a skating rink and there were cars off all over the place and those lucky enough to stay on the road were going about 20 miles an hour.  Yikes.  I considered turning around, but the northbound side was blocked with fire trucks and ambulances, and major, major experience has taught me that we would be driving out of it soon enough.  Which we did, but I couldn't help but thinking OH NO.  Am I really ready for this?  (Truth be told, ever since the crazy drive to NYC in a blizzard, I have found any short trips driving on snow and ice to be quite do-able!)  Those squalls always leave wreckage in their wake, so I'm not really sure why we even bothered to go out; I guess because we're just not ready to admit that winter is upon us.  Today I am going to go out and pull the kale -- yes, I have had kale growing right up until the squall.  It looks a little toasted now though.  Time to admit defeat and accept what I can't stop!  Mount Sunapee opened today too.  Am I ready to ski?  Not really.  I certainly won't waste my time going there and skiing the one trail they open to the masses, but it's just another sign.  Of winter.