Countdown to Christmas...

The countdown to Christmas is really on, with only a few days left to trim the tree, wrap the presents and get those gingerbread cookies baked. It's been pretty green the past few weeks, except for a snowstorm I missed while away in Toronto, but last night, we had a little snow, just in time for Christmas. I don't think it's supposed to last, but at least we had a little dusting of white at some point during the season.

It looks so peaceful and pretty when it's first fallen, don't you think?

Early morning musings

I'm not a morning person. Never have been, most likely never will be. On the days that I do have to wake up at the crack of dawn and I see how beautiful the world is at first light, I'll sometimes say to myself, "that sunrise is so lovely, maybe I should get up this early all the time."

And then my love of sleeping wins every time. Anyway, maybe a beautiful sunrise would get a bit boring after a while, if you saw it every single day. Maybe it would lose its specialness...that's my excuse and I'm sticking with it. 

Though, on mornings like this morning, when the sky is brilliant hues of orange and gold with the sun beaming through my window, I'm not sure such beauty could ever be considered boring. 

Harrods

There's lots of things that I love about London (I mean, lots) but one place that I find particularly magical is Harrods. This luxury department store has been around for a long, long time, and to me, is the ultimate in glamour. Sure, in Canada, we have The Bay and Holt Renfrew, which are both fabulous, but Harrods is just a bit different, a bit more special. 

While perusing the different departments last November, I wandered into the Christmas section and fell in love with the ornately decorated trees and the delicious looking "fairy cakes" (what they call cupcakes!) Growing up, my parents would always buy an ornament from whatever place we visited on vacation during the summers, so our Christmas tree was a map of all of our favourite travel spots around the world. Now that I have my own tree to decorate, I've started to do the same as well. So while in Harrods, I treated myself to a little British phone box, much like the one found here.

I almost treated myself to a sweet-looking fairy cake, but at £6.50 each, I couldn't justify spending that much on a cupcake. Plus, I'm afraid I'd have decided it was too beautiful and couldn't eat it! Ah well, maybe next time! 

Winter is coming...and so is Christmas!

Another weekend comes to a close. The days are growing shorter and the nights longer. Winter is definitely on its way, which means Christmas is just a few short weeks away. I'm finally, slowly, starting to get in the mood for it. Especially when the lobby of my apartment building starts to look like the picture below, it's hard not to feel a little flutter of excitement for the holidays.

It's beginning to look a lot like...

We had our first snow fall of the season yesterday. And more today. I was hoping autumn would last a little longer, but it seems winter has decided to start a bit early this year. As much as I love Christmas, I feel like it was summertime and August just last week. It's like I blinked and whole months disappeared. I guess that's what happens when you're busy with work, friends, life in general. 

I'm hoping to take some time to myself in the coming weeks to relax, recharge and reflect on the year coming to an end and a new one beginning in less than two months. Before we know it, we'll be ringing in 2016. It's time to make the last few weeks of 2015 the best few weeks of 2015. 

Christmas time is here again...almost.

As it's nearing December and stores are already starting to play Christmas tunes, have their display windows decked out festively, and are already overrun with crazy shoppers, I am slowly starting to get in the holiday mood.

While perusing Pinterest earlier, I found a few Christmasy things that made me long for gently falling snow on a calm, chilly night, bundled up with boots and scarves and mitts, walking through a winter wonderland; sitting around the fire place at my cousin's house with all the extended family, playing Trivial Pursuit or singing a few carols. All the things that remind me of Christmases gone by, all things I love.

What puts you in the Christmas spirit?