I AM THE FIRESTARTER

I made my first real fire of the season in the wood stove tonight (not the fireplace though, too much work for too little payoff).

Expert level fire-building is a talent I never expected to acquire in my lifetime. Like parallel parking and plumbing, I just thought I'd never be good at it and that I would turn on a heater or ask someone else to make a fire. And then, 9 years ago, we moved to the mountains.

Living in a tiny little cabin in the mountains with one below-average wall heater meant that we relied heavily (exclusively, really) on our little wood burning stove. And if I wanted to have a warm house in the morning before the kids went off to school and I to work, I had to make a fire. Every cold day. For months. (I exaggerate. Sometimes Rube would make it. And often he would do his best to load the stove before we went to bed so there were coals in the morning. But I was loading wood every day. And I cut my own kindling with a hatchet - so that's impressive!)

I prefer fire heat to forced-air heat. When sleeping away from home I am often awakened all sweaty and dry-mouthed when the heater kicks on in the morning. Yuck. This never happens in fire heated homes. The gentle warm air tends to stay in the same room with the fire, which allows some of the rooms in the house to stay nice and cold, in the event that you want to visit some of that. And sometimes, when I really get the fire cranking and the sun comes up and warms the house a little, I do get too hot. Time to open windows and hang out in the room furthest from the fire. Like AC. But only in the dead of winter.

This season is my favorite. Cozy is my natural state. Curled up with a warm mug of something and a pile of laundry to fold while watching a movie. Wind whistling through the trees and the seams in the door. Sweatpants and fuzzy socks in ugg slippers and long pilly sweaters. This is my nirvana.

Happy first fire to you. Happy cold. Happy beginning of the holidays with all of their stress and expectations and people we love and people we wish we didn't. How blessed are we to have so much thanks to give.