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As much as I love holiday decorations, I believe there are lines which should be drawn.  Some things are just inappropriate, like all-blue Christmas lights.  And some things are just excessive, like those god awful giant inflatable yard ornaments.

For several weeks back in October, our neighborhood was plagued with extensive road construction which required that we drive down the exact same street every day.  One of our lovely neighbors on that street decorated for Halloween by placing a massive inflatable gargoyle on their front porch.  I'm talking massive.  The seven foot beast had sprawling wings and glowing red eyes.  I couldn't exactly imagine it would attract the trick-or-treaters.  Even I tended to float the stop sign by their house rather than come face-to-face with those evil, soul-stealing eyes.

I looked forward to the day after Halloween, when the gargoyle would return to where it came from, like maybe Wal-Mart or the garage or the depths of hell.  And wait I did, for about three weeks after Halloween.  Some people already had Christmas lights up; these people still had the inflatable spawn of satan on their porch.  Finally, sometime in late November, the gargoyle disappeared.  Blake and I and probably the entire neighborhood breathed a collective sigh of relief for our neighborhood aesthetic and/or our mortal souls.

And then, one week later, this charming little fellow appeared.

I can only pray that he will be down by Valentine's Day, and that Wal-Mart doesn't make any giant inflatable cupids.  In the meantime, I will be trying to convince Blake that deflating Santa Homer with the sharp point of an icicle is not the Christmas-y thing to do.   

It rained all day Wednesday and froze all night.  The snow began early Thursday morning and didn't stop for two days.  Six inches, a full-on blizzard for Oklahoma.   School was canceled both Thursday and Friday. 

The worst part about the snow days was not missing my last two days of class.  It was not being stuck at home with nothing but a box of Cheerios and three diet cokes.  The worst part was not my freezing, FREEZING cold wood floors, (someone really should tell you this happens, before you de-carpet.)  It wasn't even the two hour mandatory make-up lecture Saturday morning. 

The worst part was staying in the house both days, studying for my finals.  The worst part was missing out on all of the sledding and snowman building.  The worst part was realizing that I might actually be a grown up.

Someone really should tell you this happens. 

If you can't tell, I'm neck deep in finals and feeling appropriately melodramatic and emotionally fragile.  A few more hours of studying Criminal Procedure, and I'm foregoing the traditional methods for a Law and Order marathon.  Countdown to freedom: 10 days, 4 finals.