Snowflakes + Cold Weather = Winter = Christmas = Happiness

I have had snowflakes on the brain today. NYC saw its first snowflakes of the season this morning and that is good news to anyone who enjoys the changing of the seasons and the promise that the advent of a new season holds. Snow, to me, never loses its magical allure, but there is something extra special and magical about seeing the very first snowflakes of the season. I get so happy and excited and it makes me feel like I'm 5 years old again. I love it!

Snowflakes are so awesome. There are so many good things to say about them. No two are alike. They are beautiful. And when I see them, they make me think about some of my favorite things, like Christmas and snowmen and snow days when I was a kid and hot chocolate with lots of marshmallows in it.

I like when cities put lighted snowflakes on lampposts around the holidays. I was walking home the 10 long blocks from the grocery store to my apartment this evening in lovely Jersey City and even though, after about 5 blocks, my hands were starting to go numb and my face was getting windburned and my ears were burning and hurting and felt like they were going to fall off from frostbite and my arms were starting to ache from carrying 14 pounds of cat litter, I was happy on the inside. You want to know why none of those bad things mattered? Because I was walking along an avenue that was adorned with those beautiful snowflakes. Every single lamppost, for as far as the eye could see, had a big lit up snowflake attached to it, and walking under their soft, twinkling glow and being able to look up at them from time to time transformed an otherwise unpleasant and tiresome trek into a festive and delightful seasonal stroll.

I really like classic, old school, paper snowflakes, too. Who doesn't remember and love the snowflakes that you used to make in elementary school by folding a white sheet of paper and making all sorts of crazy cuts with those great two-toned, plastic kid scissors? Isn't it amazing that no matter how many you made, truly no two ever turned out the same? I guess it really is true what they say about snowflakes.

Thank God for snowflakes in all of their various forms. They represent so many wonderful concepts and always evoke a "flurry" of warm and fuzzy feelings and memories.

And now, allow me to close with a poignant and thought-provoking quote about snowflakes.

"Snowflakes are one of nature's most fragile things, but just look at what they can do when they stick together.”