Not Dreaming

Seattle is known as rainy for a reason. When we have precipitation it's rarely in gaseous or frozen form.

This morning, after being harassed out of my warm bed by my mother for presents and pastries, I sat wrapped in a quilt on the braid rug next to the tree. After opening up tens of tiny, lovingly wrapped-and-ribboned stocking stuffers, I reached for one of her gifts to me (which, I was about to find out, was a "Big Ball of Guilt- because passing on guilt to others shows you care!" - such an appropriate gift from my mother), and I glanced out the tall farmhouse windows to see the air thick with giant snowflakes, dramatically silhouetted against the firs at woods' edge. Now, we get snow a couple times a year in the Northwest, but it's usually odd timing, like November or March. We don't really consider "white christmases" as even being an option. But it was like the land of the Sugar Plum Fairies right then, as I hadn't been paying attention to weather forecasts and the flakes took me entirely by surprise, and I was far from the city at the family farmhouse. To be drinking coffee under a blanket on Christmas morning while it snowed (and stuck!) was more than a girl from the temperate rainforest would think to ask, but it was the perfect gift. The atmosphere was mute, as it is when the clouds blanket from above, and the snow insulates below. With the woods at the perimeter, and the little farmhouse in the field without context or sound from the world beyond, it was like being in your own Christmas snowglobe. As stereotyped and cliche that may sound, it was lovely.

As a scene in a snowglobe is temporal, and the flakes settle quickly, so was our Christmas dusting. A few hours later the falling snow turned to slush, and ate holes through the white carpet over the grass until it was gone. But it left a good imprint on the day of presents, when people all over were turning from the unwrapping of their computer games, foot massagers, and cordless drills toward the window to enjoy the pure surprise together. It's a present you that you can't custom-order, and don't mind sharing... way cool.