Snow. Great.

Reason #1 why I hate winter:

SNOW!

That's what I see when I look out the window at work. It's gross. We already shoveled the sidewalk in front of the store twice, salted it twice and it's already covered again. The hardware store is totally banking on snow-related products today. $21 for a container of salt? Insane. I'd love to leave early but a few people have already come in and a couple more called to see if we would be open. I don't really mind staying open, we only have 3 hours left, plus we stopped by my parents' house and grabbed my dad's truck so at least we'll be safe getting home. Gotta love 4-wheel drive.

Today hasn't been too bad, though. I got to wear my favorite rain boots:

They were a Christmas present from Brian 2 years ago, I still love them. They're the only things that make snow semi-tolerable.

One of the best parts of my job during the holidays is receiving Christmas baskets! Around the holidays the companies we do business with send us gift baskets as a little "thank you". For Thanksgiving we got a box of the most delicious brownies. For Christmas this is what we've received so far:

From Harry & David. It has fresh pears, apples, some cookies, nuts, 3 fruit preserves, truffles (my favorite ever), cheese and some smoked salmon that I already gave away to a customer.

So far I like this one the best. They decided to be clever and send us "The New Yorker" basket. It comes in a pretty brown suede basket/tray (hello martinis) and has caviar, biscotti, more truffles, cocoa, camembert cheese, garlic and rosemary crackers and a bunch of other delicious snacks. With the amount of business we give these companies these little baskets of goodness are really the least they can do, but they're very much appreciated.