Snow Globe

This has been the warmest fall in memory - record breaking double digit temperatures in December. Jackets and umbrellas instead of parkas and hats... It is almost Christmas and grass is still green, the sun still warms us as we walk.

It isn't until the sun goes down, slipped under the western horizon, that the temperatures also slip under the freezing mark.

When you slide into the seat beside me, I can smell the cold that hugs you and has followed you into the car. You will soon be warmed by the car and my hand will warm yours, your fingers curled in my palm...

Later we walk under a velvet black sky, the cold night on our cheeks and noses... Our voices and breath made visible under the streetlights and by Christmas lights.

Only twice now this season do I remember snowflakes... And each time I have been walking with you... You close beside me - big blanket of sky, rows of lights and decorated houses... It seems that Christmas can't be white without you.

And as if on cue, large white flakes floating down... Completing the picture... Suddenly we are released into the wonder of a snow globe come to life... My world has been turned upside down and shaken - and is made beautiful and magical.

I could stand in this time and place with you for a lifetime.  Stand here with you beside me, feeling the snowflakes on my cheeks and lashes, watching them caught in your hair... Seeing Christmas lights reflected in your eyes... Knowing it is you who somehow brings magic to the night and makes the night and the season feel like Christmas.

I could stand here until all of the snowflakes have settled, the cold and magic settled on our shoulders and hair - and see that light in your smiling eyes.

And one kiss...