On the Brink

Life is on the brink of turning into "holiday season," and I am restless waiting for it to happen!

For the past few evenings, a light and cold mist has descended upon the city during rush hour time, hinting at the possibility of an evening snow flurry. The weather isn't quite cold enough to support real snow, but it cools enough when the sun goes down that it gives me hope for a few temporary evening flakes.

Matt and I drive out to the suburbs every Sunday to go to church with my parents, to have family dinner together, and to hang out at their house, watching football, doing homework, and relaxing. This past Sunday, my parents and I took a field trip to IKEA and spent a fair amount of time and money in the Christmas decoration section. On a sidenote, I have to say that Scandinavians know how to make Christmas beautiful. Straw ornaments, simply patterned and constructed fabrics, rustic wooden candleholders...all beautiful. Anyways, I came back armed with a few new Christmas items, and later in the evening, supplemented it with loaner ornaments from my parents' stash so that I could decorate our apartment whenever the inspiration hit. For the rest of the evening, we all curled up in the family room, where my dad built a beautiful fire in the fireplace, and we ate dinner together, watched football, and were surrounded by cuddly, sleepy cats. It felt very holiday-ish.

I have made my plane reservations for Christmasfest, and I added my small library of Christmas music to iTunes, and I talked with one of my sisters last night about Thanksgiving plans. So the holidays are certainly lurking...

I feel so ready to jump into holiday spirit, and I'm tired of feeling that the rest of my life is not quite ready to support me in that effort. Too much homework, too many meetings, too much rain and not enough show, too much advance Christmas commercialism that has evoked "it's too early!" reactions from family and friends such that I'm reluctant to be associated with the "too early" people and institutions around me. I think that this weekend will be a good kickoff. Michigan Avenue lights up its trees this weekend, I think, and next week I have classes off the entire week for Thanksgiving. Besides, Advent is only two weeks away. I think that the middle of November is a fine time to start feeling the holiday bug, how about you?