I've never been one to go all out on holidays. I love Christmas decorations and driving around looking at lights. I like to give and receive gifts on Christmas morning. And most of all, I like to wear scarves and boots and drink hot beverages. But it's never been this huge to-do for me.
I don't know why. I wish there was some deep introspective reason as to why I'm a big of a Scrooge, but, sorry, I have no excuse.
But never fear, friends, because those days of Grinch-dom are over at last.
It all started at the beginning of this month. I've always considered myself to be a summertime gal through and through, but for some reason fall really captured my attention this year (as stated by my last post). So, of course, the day that the leaves started to turn and the temperature started to drop, I began to celebrate Halloween. I forced a bunch of my friends to visit the local "pumpkin patch" with me (aka sketchy produce store in the middle of nowhere), made a midnight trip to a haunted graveyard, bought candy-corn shaped Christmas lights to decorate our dorm room, and put stick-on letters that spell HALLOWEEN on our door. I crammed everything that one should do during the month of October into one weekend, which I guess is the reason that I hurried merrily along to Christmas so quickly (Some might be angry that I skipped right over Thanksgiving, but honestly, all we do on Thanksgiving is eat a lot and watch football, and I do that anyways).
There are, however, a few more reasons that I'm in the Christmas spirit a bit more this year than in years past.
1. Sufjan Stevens Christmas Album- It's great, y'all. I'm all about some chill, obscure Christmas music, and this one takes the cake. It really does. It's praise to Christ's incarnation at its most raw and touching. Sufjan just has such a pretty voice, and it's complimented so well by the acoustic instruments that accompany him on the tracks. Even though it's generally Christmas music, it also has some hymns on it, thus making this cd acceptable year round.
2. My awesome new BIG, Shelly Johnston! I feel like she deserves a shout-out on here since she practically stalked me to find out that my blog even existed. We finally found out who our big sisters were for Chi-O last night, and after all the excitement died down, she and her roommate showed us their super cute room, which is totally decked out for CHRISTMAS!!!
And in addition to this Christmas atmosphere, Judy Garland was playing in the background. Have yourself a merry little Christmas, indeed.
3. Home. Home home home. This is the main symptom of my Christmas disease. There really is "no place like home for the holidays." It's such a cheery atmosphere during the winter. I love drinking hot chocolate after being outside and I love not feeling like a slob when I watch movies all day long, an activity that is only acceptable during Christmas break. I love eating and sleeping too much. I love Christmas shopping at the Summit with my friends. Most of all, though, I love spending time with my family; I love that automatic connection that seems to bind all families together this time of year.
Pretty much the Rockettes.
And of course, there is just no place as beautiful as Birmingham, Alabama during December. That really doesn't even bear mentioning.
We like to think we're cool in bham. This is practically Times Square.
My favorite place to be at Christmastime.
Only 65 days to go, people. You'd better be good, because he sees you when you're sleeping and knows when you're awake.
I'm more excited about Christmas this year, too! I think my reason is that Maggie will be a year old and I can't wait to watch her see Christmas for the first time. I mean, she sort of saw it last year, but she was like 3 weeks old, so, you know. Nobody was sleeping and I was pretty much just ready for it to be over.
ReplyDeleteOh Mrs. Riley that will be so fun! I really hope that sweet Maggie is doing GREAT!
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