November

Aren't you glad it's November? I am.

Sure, October almost always can beat November when it comes to weather. This year's October was especially delightful, despite the bizarre bout of snow we experienced in the second week that totally disrupted our Indian Summer. Besides that odd phenomenon, it was a delightful October with beautiful leaves and perfect weather. And I want to give credit where credit is due, so good job October 2011.

But I do not care one iota about Halloween. It's a holiday I could totally do without. I know that makes me the least fun person on the planet, and I do not care.

Thanksgiving, on the other hand. That's a holiday I can get behind. First of all, it merits at least one day - but usually two days - off of work. October only has Columbus Day to offer, and that holiday only seems to matter to government employees, and nobody cares about them. (Unless we are expecting some great mail from Oklahoma Vital Records, and then we suddenly care a lot about the postal workers and their infinite supply of holidays - but that's neither here nor there.)

Back to Thanksgiving - it's a holiday with treats and goodies like Halloween - but it's also a holiday about real food. It's also a holiday with real meaning and significance, or at least it can be. If we have very little to be grateful for, we can at least be grateful we don't have to work on Thanksgiving, or the day after (for most people).

When Thanksgiving is over, we can officially begin the Christmas season complete with Christmas music, Christmas shopping (mostly online, of course) and Christmas decorating.

November is a month with consistently cooler temperatures but not necessarily a great deal of snow. While I don't love the cold, I can tolerate it. I try to focus on the good aspects of cold weather - hot chocolate, soups for dinner, sweaters, hats, scarves, switching on the fireplace. (We have a gas fireplace that turns on when we flip a switch. It doesn't provide the great smells of a traditional wood-burning fireplace with chimney, but it's still warm and pleasant to look at,and infinitely tidier than a traditional fireplace.) I don't get to enjoy those things much in October, and generally they really kick into full gear in November.

Not to mention the fact that November is my birthday month, so that's always a perk for me too - assuming I do not spend my entire birthday in the car, like I did in 2007 and 2008. (This year my birthday falls a day before we leave on a road trip to the Midwest, so I think I've avoided the Birthday Car Celebration. I also avoided the Birthday Car Celebration in 2009 when we went to Washington for Thanksgiving because Thanksgiving was late that year.)

All in all, November's looking like a good month.