So I've been thinking a lot about Christmas lately. Pretty obvious since it's now officially December and it's that time of year when everyone is thinking 'tis the season!
I'm just panicking. It hit me earlier that I have literally only two weeks left of this semester. Two weeks, fourteen days, etc...and I can't go Christmas shopping until then. I have to shove in some holiday shopping in a little due to the fact that presents to California have to be sent off soon, but other than that nope. Not going to happen.
And this is not good. Last year I promised myself that I would get an early start on the gifts. I'd make things earlier, I'd shop when there were major sales. Heck I even would go out on Black Friday if I didn't have to work. Yet when the time came homework preceded anything else and I worked on Black Friday. I've really only managed to get started on one present and that's sitting half-finished in my room just staring at me as if it's saying "So...am I ever going to be finished? A complete thing? Or will I sit here incomplete until some late hour the night before you're supposed to give me away?"
I usually respond with "Oh quit whining. I started didn't I? And have you SEEN this room? How can I possibly start on gifts when I have this hurricane induced mess staring me in the face?"
To which my gift just sticks out an imaginary tongue and shuffles back to whatever it does when I'm not yelling at it.
I don't normally speak to inanimate objects, but at this time of year it's a special case. Plus it really is true about my room. At the end of every semester I have to take a rake to my room to get things organized. Usually it's just clothes piling up, books strewn about in laziness, and various other objects I've needed throughout the past four months and never got around to putting away due to homework. Then of course is the cat hair that has accumulated on my comforter (over many washings....le sigh) which I finally just have to take packaging tape to, to fully get rid of.
This is what I get for giving in all the time to the plaintive mews and pawing noises coming from my closed door. She sleeps next to me as I type and that's just adorable. Though waking up with a face full of fur constantly makes me compare the pros and cons of having a cat sleep on my bed. She always wins though.
So what was this post supposed to be about again? Oh right. Christmas.
On the bright side, after all the crazyness of finals is over with I will get more sleep than I've gotten in a month and a half and my sister will be home! Putting up the Christmas tree and my grandmother's creche followed eventually by making candy cane cookies.
You want stereotypical Christmas? Come over to my house. I do have to say, I think in some ways I love Christmas Eve a little more than the day that follows it. We have this tradition where some of the family (more closely related cousins that is) get together and pass around gifts and simply spend time with one another. Plus, great food. Until my grandmother passed away, it used to always be held at my Grandmother's house. Now she was the lady that loved Christmas. In fact I'm pretty sure the only holiday that put more fire into her was the Fourth of July, pyromaniac that she was. A tendency I'm proud to say, she passed on to me. :D
Then after everyone leaves we get ready for church and the late service. It's really the one time of the year I feel overly spiritual. Probably due to the wealth of Christmas music playing all around me. My favorite part is the end and no, not because that means it's closer to the next morning. Because every year my church ends the service by everyone holding lit candles and singing Silent Night in the candle light. The last verse we sing is always just the voices, with no piano in the background. It's a moment that makes me really feel fully one with my God.
But when all is said an done, I think it's the month of December that really gets me going. As much as I hate cold weather and think that snow should only arrive on Christmas and New Year's, it's the whole feeling and family time of the season that just makes me happy...as cheesy as that sounds.
So trying not to panic about gifts, and just grateful that I'll get to see my sister in 16 days!
No comments:
Post a Comment