Let It Snow!

I should be so lucky.

I miss the East Coast winters. I never lived far north enough to despise the winter months the way some folks do -- folks who suffer from seven months frozen earth and the kind of ice storms that render entire counties powerless for days, and whose spring is known only as "mud season." In southern Connecticut, it would snow several times every winter, but snow storms were often few and far between. I can count on one hand the times the snow fell hard enough to be waist-deep. We had fewer white Christmases than rainy ones. And snow days were rare enough that they remained special, the eternal hope of homework procrastinators.

There's foliage in Napa that I didn't expect. The vines turn brilliant colors, and the vineyard expanses are...well, they're gorgeous. Winding through Napa's highways is not as traditional as driving up the Merritt Parkway and through New England's autumnal glory, but it's pretty spectacular. If West Coast travel and winemaking had been part of the American landscape 100 years ago, Currier & Ives would have had much to capture. But I guess that's the point. This Napa wasn't here 100 years ago.

Regardless, it doesn't snow and won't snow and winters -- while chilly -- won't ever quite be the same as they were in Connecticut. But that doesn't mean I won't make them as homey as possible.

These photos are of Eve and Ish, just before we left to get our first "family" Christmas tree.