♬ I'm Dreaming of a White Christmas ♬

I'm dreaming of a white Christmas
Just like the ones I used to know
Where the treetops glisten,
and children listen
To hear sleigh bells in the snow

I'm dreaming of a white Christmas
With every Christmas card I write
May your days be merry and bright
And may all your Christmases be white

Irving Berlin, Russian-born American composer and lyricist (1888-1989)

White Christmas was only one of the season's movies that I watched this weekend and it really resonated as the ol' hometown is looking very un-white this year, much like the Vermont of Irving Berlin's story. So instead of looking out the window at the rainy pavement, I'm enjoying casting my eyes over the fake snow of my Dicken's Village tableau. There is a child's pleasure in setting up the houses and the little figurines and then turning on the lights -- all under the watchful eye of the Divine Miss.

The season is full of glistening lights. The weekend began with a little Christmas shopping at the Toronto Eaton Centre. Its impressive sculpture of Canada geese, Flight Stop by artist Michael Snow, never fails to halt me in my tracks and cause me to crane my neck upwards. Awesome. Now, if we could only have some snow for them to land on.