Season Affective Confusion

Earlier this week I received a very exciting shipment in the mail.  I had placed an order from a website here in Australia called USA Foods that sells nothing but American foods that you can't get here in Oz. You don't even want to know how much the prices were marked up, but really, it's irrelevant.  These are necessities, people (especially the Hot Tamales). Here is my loot:

One of the things I was most excited about was the pumpkin puree.  Don't worry, they were only like $7 a can. But so worth it to just have that little bit of "normal" and comfort that makes a strange place feel more like home. In anticipation of the arrival of my 3 sacred cans of pumpkin puree, I have been pinning pumpkin recipes like crazy, so today I decided to make these pumpkin chocolate chip cookies, called Pillows of Pumpkin-y Love.  If I were Australian, I would say, "they turned out just lovely" or that "they are quite nice."

 

Now, I also have to admit that while making these cookies, I had my Pandora Christmas Music station blaring.  If you don't already know this about me, I LOVE Christmas music. Since college, I've always started listening to Christmas music right after Halloween. Shout out to my roommate, Hannah, who thought I was ridiculous, but still put up with it :-)  So I figured, hey, it's November, I'm actually a couple days overdue for some Christmas music. But I gotta admit, as much as I stand by my belief in early-Christmas-music-listening... It. Felt. WEIRD. I mean, we're just a few weeks away from summer here. I had the AC on. I was wearing a tank top and sandals. Heck, I even got a sunburn yesterday.  So hearing "Frost the Snowman" and "Jingle Bells" totally messed with me. Even though I have lived in warm climates most of my life (aside from Spokane, Washington) even the weather in those places- Phoenix, Los Angeles, and Houston would still cool down somewhat during this time of year. So this just felt so foreign, even for me.  Australia, you and your backwards seasons and really confusing me.