Winter

It is strange for me to hear and see pictures of winter in the Midwest. I am instinctually bracing myself for it, but in my mind I know that I am off the hook. It has gotten cold a few days, and we have had a tiny bit of snow and ice but it never lasts more than a day and the cold is never anything in comparison to what I can handle.

I asked Jason if the grass on the promenade in front of our building dies during the winter but he tells me it stays green year round. See, I accepted that there wouldn't be snow, but I can't quite wrap my head around the idea that there won't be total desolation. Granted, the leaves did fall off of the trees but there aren't really that many trees around here to begin with. I almost don't believe him, I am still anticipating that grass will die and turn brown.

I am happy to report that I am finished with my Christmas shopping. I basically finished it all last week. Jason doesn't read my blog, so I guess I can reveal a couple things I bought for him. His "big" gift, which also turns out is one of the smallest, is a new G-Shock watch. Jason's current G-Shock is being held by a rubber band so I found a great deal online and upgraded him to a nicer G-Shock. I also got him a new Wii game which was something he asked for. Its a WWII game that requires a gun attachment. I am a little surprised that he wanted a first-person shooter game. He doesn't really like guns, so this surprised me a little bit but it does look like a good game.

Jason comes home Friday and then he is on leave until January 3rd, which I am very excited about. This weekend I am hoping he will help me bake some Christmas cookies. His culinary skills don't go too far beyond heating things up, but when it comes to the "assembly" step of baking he is actually really handy. I hope he will not find the task of helping me with Christmas cookies too girly, but I'd like to have something to give our neighbors and some other people.

I am very excited for Christmas this year. I am hoping it will be a really memorable one since it is our first in this place and as a married couple. I ran the idea of going to church on Christmas Eve by Jason, and he didn't turn down the idea, but he did say that they usually go to the pub. So, basically the exact opposite of going to church.

We don't regularly attend church but it would be nice to go and the service probably wouldn't be that different to me. Most churches in England are either Church of England or Catholic which makes it easy. The Church of England which is also called Anglican is the same as the Episcopalian church in America. The Lutheran and Episcopalian churches do share many things in common and agree on much of their doctrine so it does work out in that sense. Not sure if we will be able to go to church or if we will opt for the pub, I can't really think of any way we could compromise on that. I don't think having a pre-communion cocktail before the late Christmas Eve service would be a great idea, but if it is going to happen anywhere it would happen here.