dark winter nights

It was strange to drive home from work in the dark tonight.  I am so used to having it be sunny and bright as I pull up to the house.  It felt like winter.  I was trying to explain to a native Floridian today that the true definition of winter = dark and cold.  I really started to think that when I got out of the carpool car is was going to be cold out just because it was dark.

Christmas lights are already twinkling in the palm trees and in the grocery store above the ground beef.  I love this time of year.  I secretly listened to Christmas music on my ipod on the way home today in carpool.

These dark nights remind me of when I was little and we would have to go to our piano lessons after school every Wednesday.  When winter came it would be dark half way through our lessons.  I remember feeling cozy and warm at my piano teachers house on these dark nights.  She always cooked soup on Wednesdays and her whole house would smell like chicken noodle.  I especially loved it when she put her Christmas tree up and as I waited for each of my sisters to finish with their lessons I would sit and stare at the pretty lights glowing from the tree.  I loved her tree because she used the giant Christmas lights and my homework would glow red and green and blue.