White Pre-Christmas

I must say, it’s easier to get into the Christmas Spirit when there’s snow on the ground already.  It always seemed that, growing up in Missouri, we were lucky to have much or any snow on the ground in the month of December, let alone this early in the month.  Of course, with the move to Iowa, we are significantly closer to the North Pole, where the snow will stay on the ground through mid-June…  But yeah, it’s kinda nice driving around listening to Christmas music on the radio with the sun shining and snow on the ground, knowing that Christmas is still a few weeks away.  Somehow the snow is a bit less worrysome for me knowing that it’s still December.  Of course, this only foreshadows the pains we will go through in January and February, but for now, it’s pleasant.

We did have highs in the mid-teens over the weekend, and lows in the single digits.  Glad we got our propane tank filled on Friday…

Regardless, we were expecting the First Big Snowfall Of The Year this past weekend (3-5 inches), but we only ended up with less than 2 in.  It was enough to cover the ground and was kinda nice to wake up to on Saturday morning.  We didn’t have much trouble driving around and the streets were quite clear, thanks to Iowa’s relatively decent road crew.

As a result of our busy-ness in the upcoming weeks/weekends, we also went and picked up a Christmas tree.  This year marks the first time we picked up anything larger than a “Charlie Brown Tree,” as we now have a bit more space to use for one.  Brooke had seen a place up near Cedar Rapids that we could go, so we headed up there on Sunday and cut one down.  It ended up being a little over $20 for a 5 ft tree, so I was rather pleased.  I’ll take a picture or two of it once I figure out what’s going on with the auxiliary flash for our dSLR…

On another note, the power supply went out on the web server last week, explaining the absence of the website for a few days.  I was concerned that the motherboard/processor had died, which would have ended up being a more expensive fix in the same month that we bought 250 gal of propane gas and Christmas presents, but thankfully, it was just the power supply…only a $50 fix, in the end.  It has gotten me thinking about the server upgrade that I’m planning, hopefully for 2011, so now I’m in the mode of searching for the best deals and “bang for your buck” on computer components.  Dangerous thinking, to be sure, but at least I can put off a large purchase for a few more months.