Change of Heart

Eight years ago we moved from Utah to Arizona. We moved here just at the very end of October, just days before Halloween. I had never lived outside of Utah, or that far away from family. Even in college I was only a 45 minute car ride away from home. By Christmas time I was pretty homesick. To make matters worse it was smack dab in the middle of the Christmas season, my favorite time of year, and it didn't feel like Christmas.

For starters, there was no snow. It was warm outside, for a born and bred Utahn anyway. We were going to be going home for Christmas, so we didn't even bother getting a tree. (This was back in the days when we got real trees) So no family, no snow, and no decorations. It might as well have been September, or March, or something. I was depressed. And to add to my irritation was the fact that I couldn't go anywhere without seeing palm trees all lit up with Christmas lights. What bothered me about this is the way it's done. One single string of lights wrapped around the trunk of the tree. In the dark they look more like telephone poles than trees. It just looked ridiculous in my opinion and annoyed me to no end.

I still miss the snow (only momentarily though) and get all nostalgic when I hear the song White Christmas -"I'm dreaming of a white Christmas. Just like the ones I used to know...." I've come to terms with it though, I think that year someone mentioned how the Arizona climate is more like the climate in Bethlehem, and there was no snow that first Christmas, so that makes me feel better. Our house is decorated (except the outside, but that's another subject for another day). Family will be down to see us in a couple weeks, and we are looking forward to that. And mostly I just try to ignore the decorated palm trees. They don't irk me so much anymore. There's just too many of them, and it wastes too much energy getting irritated about it these days. I'm over it.

But I really had a change of heart today. Maddie and I went for our annual mani-pedis and I was looking at my bright red toes with the bejeweled snowflake on the big toenail and I thought to myself -"If we lived in Utah, I would have to wear shoes and socks and snow boots all the time, and there is no way to get away with wearing flip-flops all day to show off my cute toes. There would be no pedicures in December in Utah."

My fingernails match, but I didn't get a good shot of those. Madison couldn't decide on what she wanted, so on her toes she has a wreath and a Christmas tree, and on her thumbs she has a snowflake and a snowman- FYI.