The Cure

Right around the holiday season it hits me. I'm in Arizona. My family is in Oregon. It is sunshiny and 70's degrees here. It is rainy, cold, crisp, and windy there. While my mom can complain all she likes about the weather, on the other end of the line all I am thinking is "I'd give anything to feel the need to thaw by a fire." Some people just don't know how good they have it. (I'm sure she feels the same for me "What I wouldn't give to see sunshine for more than 5 minutes in a day!") Somehow, though, the holidays just aren't the same when you don't have the frost nipping at the windows, the hot chocolate in constant flow, and the cooking in the kitchen filling the house with warmth and aroma. So when homesickness comes calling and I start to feel the dispair of being 1300 miles from evergreen trees and snow I know just where to go. I have found my cure.

The moment I walk in the doors of Bass Pro Shop I immediatly drop 15 years in age. How can I not? You have Santa in the corner with his busy elves helping young children. Christmas trees with decorations on every last limb, Christmas lights, the whole bit! Not to mention the rocky interior, the river fish tank, the mini river, trees of all assortments. It's like home away from home! It brings a whole new meaning to "retail therapy!" I don't have to spend a dime to feel like I stepped into a teleporter taking me back home within minutes. I'm as giddy as a young child on Christmas Eve, it's hard to keep up with me. "Look over there! Look at this! You have to see this here!" I'm sure it is exhausting. I walk around the aisles and displays taking in every bit of home that I can. By the time I have had my fill I have lost my companion, whoever the unlucky sucker is that came with me, and am about to fall over with the intoxication of wildlife and antler dominated decorating.

Feeling composed enough to make it the drive home, my head is reeling with all the different ways I want to deck the halls and prepare for the "Fall" and "winter" seasons in my little bit of home. Next year will be something worth noting, just you wait and see.

Where do you go to remedy your homesickness?

~Birdie

PS- Merry, early, Christmas to me! Blog posts to follow!