Monday, December 1, 2008

The Home Stretch

December at last; the appropriate time for Christmas-related activity. Now the wife knows she can put up our Christmas tree without risking a domestic incident. It was a struggle for me to refrain from vandalizing the tree Wal-Mart put up in the entrance right after Halloween. Lewis Black once did a stand-up routine lamenting the absorption of Thanksgiving into the Christmas season.

"It used to be that you ate and drank and passed out, and no one woke you up and said 'let's go shopping'."

That almost seems quaint. Now by the time Thanksgiving gets here I'm already tired of the Christmas season. At least my family is going to be able to get together all at once during the season. There have been past years when it was strung out well into January. Frankly, it just doesn't work by that point. The feeling is gone.

On the other hand, I'm ready for winter. It's not that I'd be upset if the serious cold and snow held off for another couple of months, but it's reached the point where winter weather is expected with resignation; it's that time of year, as the saying goes. When it hits before now there's a sense of dread; oh no, is this going to be one of those long winters? Happily,those are rare, but I still feel a certain sense of relief knowing that however ugly it may get, it will only last the usual three or four months. Now I have to get some Christmas shopping done.

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