Hello world! The holiday season has clearly inspired me to reenter Blogville :) I love the holiday season and the warmth it brings with it, despite the bitterly cold weather.
It all starts with the beautiful fall colors sometime before the Thanksgiving weekend. Streets lined with gorgeous flaming red trees. Grocery stores' shelves lined with fresh and canned cranberries, turkey, mashed potatoes, pies and other desserts, and of course the humongous vibrantly orange pumpkins. Increasing anticipation of the Thanksgiving long weekend and the warm parties and get-togethers it brings with it.
And then a sudden and crazy few windy days and nights when the wind blows so hard that trees are left bare, with no leaf spared :). And then just when it starts to get all depressing with the cold weather, the overcast skies and the bare trees, there are sudden little sprouts of cheer everywhere - Christmas decorations - the Christmas trees, wreaths on doors, bells and ribbons on windows in houses, shops, everywhere! And then there are the pretty lights to admire (which you can do more effectively if you haven't seen data on the Christmas lighting load of CA alone. Spoiler alert: ~3000 MW).
And then there's the music. Exiting a downtown San Francisco BART station to be greeted with music by street violinists, cello and saxophone artists filling the air. (Even) people going to work on a weekday morning wearing smiles on their faces. The look of anticipation on the faces of people, of the holidays when they would get to reunite and celebrate the festival season with their loved ones. Starbucks offering gingerbread latte, peppermint mocha, pumpkin spice latte and eggnog latte (although I'm not particularly fond of the latter two). Transformation of Starbucks cups from white to red-and-white :) Food, food everywhere! Dessert, dessert everywhere :)
And then topping it all off with new year celebrations. Strangers, shop owners, everyone wishing you a happy new year :)
And the grand finale, which I think is pretty comical: Enter a gym you visit often, on Jan 2. You won't find a single treadmill that's free. The effect of New Year resolutions, of course! :D
I really love the holiday cheer and warmth. It's a wonderful transformation of the world around you. And it gives a non-blogger a gentle nudge :)
Happy New Year, all of you! May this year bring you lots of love, growth and happiness!!
