Deserving of Twilight Zone music? I think so...

You Are Dave Matthews Band Magic Brownies Ice Cream

Not *those* magic brownies!

What Flavor Ben and Jerry's Ice Cream Are You?

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas

My thoughts on Christmas decorating habits...and selected memories

With the increase in commercialization of Christmas, not only are stores putting out decorations earlier (so long Halloween, it was good to know ya) and radio stations are going "all Christmas all the time" even before Thanksgiving, so it's only logical that our neighbors would start decorating earlier & earlier too. Until this year, it had seemed that the day after or weekend after Thanksgiving signaled the trip to the attic to pull down the boxes of Christmas decorations and start hanging the outdoor lights. But this year, even with Thanksgiving being early on the calendar, I saw houses with the outsides all Christmas-fied the weekend BEFORE Thanksgiving...we're talking November 19/20, folks!

Now don't be calling me Scrooge or anything...despite my own difficulty getting into the Christmas spirit the past 3 years, I thoroughly enjoy driving through lit-up neighborhoods and the like. I enjoy going to the Smyrna Tree-Lighting festivities. It's just that the earlier the decorations go up, the earlier people seem to tire of them (and the Christmas spirit). 80% of the houses that are fully decorated on Thanksgiving are totally denuded & put away on December 26th. And to me, that just seems wrong. Shouldn't the smell, feel, and enjoyment of the holiday season last longer than just the day of or day after Christmas?

Maybe it comes from my upbringing...I remember we always put up our decorations somewhere around 2 weeks before Christmas and they stayed up through January 6th (Epiphany-the day the Wise Men presented their gifts to the Christ Child), so it just seems wrong to be doing all the decorating while it's still November (maybe I'm strange, but I prefer keeping my holidays separate - October is Halloween, November is Thanksgiving, December is Christmas). While living in the apartment with Heidi, we compromised: she wanted to go get a tree the day after Thanksgiving and I convinced her that it would be close to dead by Christmas if we did that, so we did our tree-decorating party one of the first 2 weekends in December...and we'd take it down over New Year's. Ah, some fond memories with those tree-decorating parties:

• Getting Grey to go with us to pick out a live tree (7-8 foot) so he could shake them out & "model" them for us (meaning he'd stand it up & twirl it so we could decide if it was pretty enough or not)
• having Grey, Mark, Eric, and/or Thomas put on the lights (since they were the tall ones)
• having our friends over to decorate the tree for us (amazing that it CAN be done in 20 minutes when you have help)
• sitting back & watching Christmas cartoons (Charlie Brown, Year Without A Santa Claus, Rudolph, Frosty, Twas the Night Before Christmas - the one with the mice)
• playing the Grinch game (while watching the Grinch, you drink every time they say "who" - Christy was DD one year and claims there were 60+ occurrences)
• drinking Tisha-punch
• eating Jennifer's very potent "rum lumps" (they were too big to be called rum balls)
• chowing on Julie's "helluva dip"

The last few years have been hard ones for me to get into the Christmas spirit. After spending a very special Christmas with a special person (putting up a tree together, decorating it, etc.), it is often difficult to get into that mode again when you're no longer together. But with the help of family & friends, I've made it through the past 3 seasons. This year, I'm actually in a Christmas mood of my own accord (and much earlier than would be normal for me) , and I have the SongSations & our Dickens Caroling to thank! For the first time, I'm dressing up in Dickensonian costume and entertaining shoppers at The Forum in Norcross (on the other side of Atlanta) with my fellow members. I had shifts last Friday and Saturday and came away with not only a smile, but the realization that the last bits of wistfulness associated with the season have moved into the "nothing but a good memory" section of my brain. Sharing the music, the fun, yes the cold air too...brrrr, with Chere & Ed & Judy B. & Day on those 2 days, and the smiles that the shoppers both big & small gave to us really brought the final healing touches. I'm excited about the rest of the caroling shifts I have between now & Christmas, excited about the NewPraise "Decade of Joy" concert next week...AND excited about hauling the boxes out of the attic this weekend (wow, December 3 & 4th are EARLY!) and being one of the last people on my block to put up outside lights... ;-) And I'm excited about seeing Evan & Haley's faces as they take in all of the festivities. :-)

Music of the Moment: Christmas Canon - Trans-Siberian Orchestra

Stay tuned...

No, I haven't forgotten about this place...just been busy and I had to wait to finish a roll of film & get it developed.

Coming soon: My Day as a Tar Heel Fan - A Photo Essay

Music of the Moment: On the Sea - Vertical Horizon

Welcome to the newest home of my tangental ramblings...

From LiveJournal to MyBlogSite to Blogger/BlogSpot...all in the course of 18 months. Well, I ramble, so I guess it's only appropriate that my blog does the same (albeit this latest change is due to MyBlogSite going out of the blogging business). One difference is that this blog will be more topical in nature...I'll be setting up another blog for my personal introspections, musings, gnashing of teeth, etc. - and it won't be open to the general public. If you'd like to have access to that blog, let me know & I'll invite you once it's up & running.

Music of the Moment: Blue - The Thorns