It’s December 19 and *ichigan still … no wait, I meant to say I almost have my Christmas shopping done. Almost. Which is somewhat of a triggering word in my world, as the conversation in my house went like this for a season …
“Is your homework finished?”
“Almost.”
Lather. Rinse. Repeat.
The number one most hated question currently is, “Are you all ready for Christmas?”
Bahahahahaha!
Wait, let me inhale … and exhale … and try that again.
Bahahahahaha!
Surely you jest.
Much like the corollary to Murphy’s Law that says junk will accumulate to fill the available space … gift wrapping, baking, and cookie decorating will occur to fill the available hours remaining. Something might get cleaned as well. It’ll all be fine.
Major Weekend One of holiday celebrations occurred a few days ago. Food prep followed by a child’s birthday party (pro tip: if your kiddo was born near Christmas, you can move their party to earlier in order to celebrate them properly) followed by more food prep followed by extended family potluck (think forty or fifty people) followed by church followed by cutout cookie baking followed by shopping followed by a “giving back” event the fam helps with every year, during which an adult kiddo arrived home for a visit after year one of several overseas.
In case you were wondering, we tried to represent all the holiday cheese food groups at the family potluck. Cheesy potatoes, cheese cubes, cream cheese, casserole cheese. Oh wait, I don’t think there was a cheese ball. Note to self … put cheese ball ingredients on the grocery list …
Under the category of surprising news, I willingly told the sync lady the other day to “play genre holiday”. Seriously, I’m more likely to listen to Christmas music in July. I have yet to hear The Christmas Shoes this year, further proof that there is a God in Heaven. Granted, I haven’t flipped on the radio or a streaming service, but I have been in and out of stores conducting all out audio warfare with some of the most hideous, loud, wailing Christmas music I have ever heard. I thought the point was to get you to spend more time and more money in their establishments, but maybe they’re trying to drive traffic by getting more people in and out quickly.
If you’ve been hiding under a rock and aren’t familiar with The Shoes, spare yourself the agony and search out Hanukkah Gloves instead. Better yet, fire up some Feliz Navidad and do a little dance. And if you’re cool enough, maybe you too can be part of a group message that’s been going on for years keeping an annual running count of Shoes vs. FN.
I suppose asking “are we there yet” or “are you ready for Christmas” is akin to what the Israelites must have been asking for a few hundred years leading up to the birth of Christ. And in many ways exactly what followers of Christ have been asking for a couple thousand years.
Are we there yet?
(Why aren’t we there yet?)
By the way … The Shoes are going down.
