Happy December

My favorite month! 

Because: 

• I like the early darkness - you can see the stars without staying up super late! Also, super-cozy to be inside a warm house, with a book, a fuzzy blanket, and a fireplace. When you look into the windows, you see reflection - everything is through-the-looking glass and looks familiar but yet different.
• Snow! There should be snow! But even if there isn't - the hope for a beautiful snowy winter is very much alive and kicking in early December (as opposed to, say, February, when the disappointment sets in).
• Cold! I have a new comfortable winter jacket. I have hats and gloves. I have warm fuzzy socks. I can enjoy the outdoors and stay warm.
• My birthday is in December. I know it's kind of passé to be excited about birthdays at my age (will be 47!), but hey, I will have 2 of my favorite cakes (my mom is baking one and my daughter is planning to bake another). And I will not be doing any dishes that day. And I am totally looking forward to indulging in cakes, chocolate, and winter forest walks.
• Winter break!

Last Sunday, I got an early birthday present from the world. I took two of the kids to the Barnes Foundation - I've been meaning to go there for ages. And it was free because it was the first Sunday of the month!!! I was ridiculously excited. The artwork was amazing. H showed me her favorite paintings (she had a fieldtrip there with her French class a few weeks ago). C was slightly scandalized about "all the naked people!". We overheard some quirky conversations by art lovers. We counted the foreign languages we encountered (surprisingly, only 3: Russian, French, and Spanish).

I had a strange deja-vu-ish experience. There were 2 beautiful young women wearing all-white stylish outfits, silently gliding through the museum. They looked oddly familiar - I feel like I've seen them in other museums. Maybe in another city, or maybe in Philly, I honestly can't remember. Or maybe it was their outfits - perhaps I saw other women elsewhere wearing similar stylish white pants/sweaters/hats combinations. Now I want a white wool bucket hat like that... 

Do you have a special occasions hat? (I don't... I just have beanies and a quirky faux-fur-lined peruvian-style hat that's just a little too small for my head... If I need to worry about the state of my hair, I just wear a hood).

How do you keep your hands warm in the winter?