In Canada I always decorated the house on the weekend after Remembrance Day and I decorated it big time! Our beautiful log house was a perfect backdrop for Christmas. All the glitzy and sparkly decorations helped to fight off the 'blah' of a northern winter. The cold and the very short days can eat away at a person. Once Christmas is over, the long dark months of January and February loom ahead and it can feel pretty bleak.
But here these are our best months. We are getting some (but not too much) rain this year and the temperature is just right. We are still getting our usual 12 hours (ish) a day of daylight. It does vary a little over the year but only by about 45 minutes in total so it certainly doesn't have that same SAD (seasonal affective disorder) affect that a winter in the north can have. I love that. It feels so much more natural.
But the calendar and the commercials on TV are telling me it's time...Christmas is just around the corner. So, I got the boxes of decorations down and wiped away the dust and cobwebs. And then something happened! I actually started to feel that excitement and festivity! And before you know it, I'm making plans for Christmas dinner for 25 people, making the rounds in the stores for MORE decorations, writing up Adam's 'to-do' list, and having a jolly old time! The lights are up, the tinsel is getting sorted, and the plans are being schemed! It is beginning to look a lot like Christmas!!! |