Getting in the Mood for Christmas

As December approached I realized that my head was not at all in the Christmas season. It was just coming too fast! How could it be the holiday season already?

Thanksgiving came, and was a lovely day. OK, I was starting to feel the season a tiny bit.

2004--Megan with the Nativity mural she made for our house.

When I had young children, it was impossible to miss the anticipation and excitement of Christmas. Now, I sometimes need a little help. So, I made a plan of sorts to get me in the proper mood for Christmas. I did not want to be dragged kicking and whining into seasonal preparations. I did not want to miss the Spirit of it all. I did not want the blahs to own the day!

My plan was simple. I'd listen to Christmas music, which I have always loved and of which I have a fair collection. I would watch lots of those sweet and silly Christmas movies that proliferate each year (I've already seen several take-offs on Dickens' Christmas Carol). I'd bravely dive into gift buying, even though I hadn't a clue as to what to get for most of my list.

And you know what? It is beginning to feel more and more like Christmas. The tree is up, the gifts I ordered have begun to arrive, and, yes, I am still watching sappy movies. They make me feel good, even though those New York and Hollywood writers haven't the faintest notion what life is really like in a small town. I wonder if any of them have ever lived in a small town! Perhaps their versions of small town life is just what we would all wish it were like. Even so, they put me in a much better mood than the news shows I usually watch and which are definitely not full of holiday cheer. I don't deny reality--but there is more to reality than just the grim stuff. And right now, I am choosing to escape to the bright side!

Tonight I will get our old Nativity Scene figures down from the top of the closet and put them out. It won't be Christmas without them!