Happy Holidays?

Apparently Father Christmas has arrived. I went shopping recently and discovered a whole section of my local department store decked out in Christmas trees and lights and ornaments. It actually stopped me in my tracks. It's getting warmer here and it's been increasingly hard to remind myself that Christmas is a-coming. Plus, Christmas is taking on new significance for me because I (ever so briefly) am coming home (whichever of the 17 locales I will be inhabiting that is "home")!

I took the opportunity to wander through the pretty section of holiday decorations. Actually, I had the same look on my face as a four year old perched on his father's shoulders looking at the decorations. Hey, I like small, shiny objects, what can I say?

But at least this year, I think I will have finally re-created the anticipation of my younger days. As you get older, holidays become less fun as they are tedious and harried. But this year, I have to get all my presents bought early (so I can take them home with me), and am looking forward to the trip home as well as the actual holiday.

So although there isn't the bliss of the year's first snowfall, or the brisk cold that is winter, I am enjoying my tribute to another time and place - a hot chocolate out of a Santa mug. So before I get caught up in the million things I need to do before I get on that plane (let alone thinking about that crazy long flight), I am taking a moment to remember why I used to get so excited about the holidays.

• friends and family!
• snow
• ice skating
• Christmas carolling with illegal hot chocolate and peppermint schnapps
• did I mention friends and family?
• Christmas movies
• the nutcracker
• Christmas music
• friends and family!
• cookies and cakes
• my mom's broccoli-cheesy-rice goodness
• my aunt's veggie pizza
• Christmas morning lounge fest, complete with omelettes, pancakes, and enough coffee to drown several horses
• Christmas eve service and my dad singing "hark, Herald, the angel sang.." and me giggling like a four year old
• driving around and looking at candy cane lane (before it got ghetto)
• FRIENDS AND FAMILY!

Sigh. I know it's a month and a half away, but why wouldn't you want to revel in those things for at least that long?