preparing for hibernation

So...it's cold. When I was in college I looked forward to the winter season. I had this nice black coat I wore with black boots and sweaters from J. Crew. I also had an assortment of matching scarves and hats and gloves...yeah, I was all about winter fashion...until I moved here! Now I wear wool pahari socks, rainbow-colored stocking caps, sweaters with fringe, and yak wool shawls. I wish it ended there...

So Emily, Beki, April, and myself are becoming a bit...rugged. I blame the cold. It makes us want to shower less. It makes us want to wear the same flannel pants for weeks without washing them (lest we get frosbite from ringing out our laundry by hand). It makes us sleep with Nalgene bottles of hot water. When I told my cousin, Christy, I was moving to the Himalayas she laughed and said she hoped I didn't become a crazy mountain woman and grow facial hair. Yeah me too, Christy, except it might just keep me warmer if I could.

There are other things that attribute to the ruggedness. I can't go into all the details, but we became concerned when I dropped a spoon on the ground and Beki said, 'Don't worry. You have the 5 minute rule.' When did the 5 second rule become the 5 minute rule? This brought about a serious question. Have we become gross people? Are we going to freak everyone in America out when eat food off of the ground, wear socks with our sandals, and tell people to go to the bathroom behind a rock instead of going inside? I'm afraid so. I'm afraid we've traded in all cleanliness and beauty in the name of survival. Soon we'll be skinning mountain lions. We live off the land. All we need is our yak wool and chapstick.


I guess I wasn't quite ready to embrace my new mountain image. I spent the day with my friend, Jessie, at a Tibetan beauty shop. It was tons of fun--we put cajole on our eyes--and I'm looking forward to spending more time with Jessie. I just met her a couple weeks back and she's a really sweet girl.

In case you wonder if the cold is worth it...well, this is the view from our porch. I'm really looking forward to being here for the Christmas season. In fact, I've decided that Emily and I are going to do something we've never done before which is fully celebrate the Advent. I'm in the process of creating a Jesse Tree and it's putting me in the Christmas spirit like nothing has before. Our hanging of the green ceremony will be Sunday so I'll try and post some pictures. We don't have the proper colored candles, but thanks to my mom, aunt, and cousin I have some good substitutes. I can't wait for it all to begin!