Plastic Santas and Santa Anas

So... it's December and I don't think I have ever felt less in the holiday spirit.  It's not that I'm a Grinch or anything, it just doesn't feel like the holidays when it's 65 degrees and there are palm trees everywhere.  Oh, and it's super windy.  Earlier this week, someone commented that the winds must make me feel like I'm back in Chicago.  No.  No, the Santa Ana Winds DO NOT remind me of Chicago.  ALSO, Chicago is not significantly winder than any other city (see table below from www.currentresults.com) and earned the nick-name "The Windy City" for the "windbag" politicians not the weather .  In addition, I have never had large amounts of sand blown into my face in Chicago.  Snow, sure.  Sand, dust, palm leaves, not so much.

Average annual wind speed of the windiest US cities

(in miles per hour and kilometres per hour)

City	MPH	KPH
Boston, Massachusetts	12.3	19.8
Oklahoma City, Oklahoma	12.2	19.6
Buffalo, New York	11.8	19.0
Milwaukee, Wisconsin	11.5	18.5
Dallas, Texas	10.7	17.2
Kansas City, Missouri	10.6	17.1
San Francisco, California	10.6	17.1
Cleveland, Ohio	10.5	16.9
Minneapolis, Minnesota	10.5	16.9
Virginia Beach, Virginia	10.5	16.9
Providence, Rhode Island	10.4	16.7
Chicago, Illinois	10.3	16.6
Detroit, Michigan	10.2	16.4

Anyway, for the weather not being conducive for winter as I know it, you've got to hand it to the people of California; when decorating for the holidays, they sure do give it hell out here:

Can't see it in the pic, but the palm tree trunks are indeed
adorned with lights

More intense than Michigan Ave!

Ice skating in tank tops... so weird...

I thought tacky blow up decorations only existed in the Midwest!

Protect and serve...

Even with all the decorations, it just doesn't feel like December!  To me, December and the holidays look like this:

Yeah, ok.  These are all from Sale Colorado Thanksgiving 2011.  But still.
Thanksgiving is like the opening ceremonies of the holiday season!
Now it just feels like a big tease...

After talking to my mom about my December blues and my reluctance to even attempt to decorate and make it feel like Christmas out here, she basically told me (in the most motherly way possible) that I needed to suck it up and get used it.  This is where I live now, it is a completely different climate for me, and that is not gonna change any time soon.  So, today I decided to celebrate my new found "warm winter" by running errands on my bike and then riding down the beach.  First stop, CB2 to purchase items for holiday gift exchanges and to see if I could find my holiday spirit.  It was a good start that ultimately led me to create this:

I call it "California Snow."

After Downtown Santa Monica, I trekked West to the ocean front path and made my way down to Venice where I discovered that it is difficult to ring a bike bell in an "aggressive" manner to indicate your displeasure in ones actions.  It sounds so damn cheerful and happy- not at all translating the sentiment "get out of my way hippie!"

Um... I don't know if you can tell, but it's super windy...

Venice also provided a view of some carnage from the winds:

After all of my riding around town and down beaches looking for my inner Christmas loving child, my heart finally grew three sizes when I saw the decorated cop car pictured towards the beginning of the post.  I felt inspired to upgrade from what I had been claiming as my Christmas Tree:

Yes, my mommy stocks an advent calender for me every year.

To this little guy!

He's real!!!

Who now looks like this:

(*Cue cheesy background music*  OH!  And read this part with a British accent!) So friends, the true moral of this post is that Christmas Spirit is not dependent on the weather.  It is, in fact, dependent on you and your inner spirit and ability to embody the holidays in the midst of even the most adverse and winter wonderland-less weather...

Too far?  Yeah, I thought so.  Point is, I'm figuring things out.  I'm glad I got a tree.  Like super, jump up and down, clap your hands, squeal like a child happy (as in, did all those when I brought it in the house).  I'm changing my attitude and enjoying the warm weather instead of being weirded out by it.  I'm avoiding riding my bike into the wind.  My true dose of winter weather will surly come when I head back to Iowa for Christmas- and after that, I think LA weather will sound AH-mazing.