It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas
Outside, not so much - it was 62 degrees F yesterday! Certainly snow is not blanketing the earth... It's been hard for me to get in the Christmas spirit this year, in large part because of the lack of snow. However, little by little things are shaping up. I hung stockings several weeks ago and put up a little tree. This morning I finally dug out the nativity scene I had purchased in Salzburg over the summer (it was still in the suitcase...which means I haven't unpacked the suitcase I used in August...is that bad?). And last week was the departmental holiday party for work.
As the shoppers rush home with
their treasures
Since it hasn't felt like Christmas, I was greatly surprised when I realized last week that there were only 11 days left until Christmas! I had purchased exactly zero presents! And I had sent precisely zero cards! ...Things were looking bad, and the schedule of life wasn't appearing to give me much free time to go out shopping. Instead of trying to figure out how I could possibly manage to combine shopping with some other activity I had in the schedule (hockey and shopping...? church and shopping...? having dinner and shopping...perhaps, although indigestion was a quite possible outcome.), I decided to leave work early on Friday and go out - I was sort of forced to do this, in actuality, because I needed to have many of the items on my list purchased by Sunday, and Saturday was filled with hockey games and work.
I must not have been the only person who thought Friday afternoon shopping was a great idea, because it was packed. For the most part lines were short, but I was glad I'm a big fan of finding a very far away parking spot and walking a long ways to get to stores, because that was what I had to do, and trying to find a "good" spot would have quickly drained all holiday cheer I may have mustered at the time.
The afternoon of shopping turned into a 6-hour ordeal, and I'm not a big fan of shopping to begin with, so by the time I got home, I really felt I knew the meaning of "shop 'til you drop."
the spoils. i even managed to only buy one thing for myself that was completely unnecessary...
But since I really had to get those presents ready for Sunday, I wrapped. In the end, I had a pile of gifts ready to be given to the family my Bible study group adopted through the Salvation Army.
We did this last year and now again this year, and it is fast becoming one of my favorite Christmas traditions. It is so rewarding to meet the needs of others, and even the wants of others! Plus...shopping for other people is way easier than shopping for myself, particularly when it comes to clothing. Nothing ever fits me, and I usually stomp out of stores in a rage (not really) - but when items are for other people...I'll do my best, but in the end, it's not my problem.I even managed to make it to a mall in my shopping excursion. Gasp! They had a delightful little place for children.
I sort of wanted to ride on the train, myself.Caroling, caroling, through the snow
As already stated, we haven't got any snow. And so I suppose it's appropriate that I also haven't gone caroling. I had gotten all excited that I was going to go caroling last Thursday, and that certainly added to my holiday cheer, but then that didn't end up happening. I had somehow messed up the dates of two activities the young adult ministry at my church were planning, and when I showed up Thursday night set to go caroling "in the hood", I was surprised to find that it was not indeed caroling night and it was indeed the night we were going to be helping with the high school students, but for some reason that got cancelled, so it was just a little chaotic instead. Ugh, that's what I get for not going the week before when apparently all of this was announced! Oh well. Sadly, I will miss caroling (which actually was scheduled to be this Thursday) because I will be out playing ice hockey. Well, at least there will be ice there!
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