Today I declare, it's officially winter. Maybe it's not actually, physically, scientifically winter, but it certainly feels winter-ish.

I've been getting these whooshes of "Christmassy" feeling lately--an icy wind, the smell of a pine tree, not to mention the fact that Costco has been selling Christmas junk since September...which even pushes my boundaries of when Christmas spirit ought to start. When I started whistling "Carol of the Bells" the other day my mom flipped out. From her perspective, you're not even allowed to think about Christmas until the end of November at earliest. Oh, and I started Christmas shopping already--my dad always says he wants world peace for Christmas (which is obviously way beyond my budget), and I found a chocolate bar called "world peace" at Holt Renfrew. So ha ha ha, or ho ho ho (that's too cheesy again...), the Christmas season has begun...