Colder weather, along with this beautiful pot of amaryllis and paperwhites (an early Christmas gift from Claui's folks) and a whole raft of brightly wrapped gifts from Fay in Virginia (she's always beforehand with gifts, doggone it) are telling me it's time to make the shift from autumnal colors to reds and greens. Time to toss out the pumpkins and decorative gourds (the squirrels and other critters will enjoy them) and begin bringing out the Christmas odds and ends too. Maybe I should bake something with cinnamon to make the house smell holiday-ish.
They're giving snow for this weekend (as my older neighbors used to say) so it'll be easier to begin to get into the Yuletide spirit. No tree though, till the 16th -- that's the time we've appointed for the traditional stringing of the popcorn and cranberry chain and decorating the tree. I look forward to Josie's reaction. She'll be able to 'help' -- we have lots of unbreakable ornaments for the lower branches. And I look forward to watching these bulbs grow and bloom -- a fine antidote to the gray skies.