all i want for christmas

the last few weeks have been nice, if dull, and i've enjoyed them.

however, part of my joy has been spoiled by this: it's november, NOVEMBER, the month of thanksgiving, yet everywhere i go i see christmas decorations. i hear christmas music playing. i read blogs that are pressuring us to HURRY HURRY HURRY and get things done before christmas comes.

what, i ask you, ever happened to thanksgiving?

i'll tell you what. it was banished by marketing moguls and crappy capitalists who would like to skip the season where you're thankful for your blessings and go right to the season where you get (and therefore buy) stuff. and don't even get me started on where the POINT of christmas was banished to.




the sad thing is, we've bought it hook line and sinker. we are sad, impressionable sheep, people. instead of rejoicing in the fun of making or buying gifts for loved ones during the month of december, we start stressing out as soon as school starts that christmas is right around the corner. we wrack our brains trying to think of the perfect gift, we lust over that perfect wrapping paper, and create wishlists of the things we want. maybe, just maybe, on christmas morning we might give Christ's birth a nod by reading the christmas story, but then it's straight to the unwrapping frenzy, the worry that your presents weren't appreciated, and the big anticlimax of cleaning up the aftermath.



with all this going on, no wonder poor thanksgiving has taken a backseat. because being thankful isn't as frenetic and shiny and crazy as its holiday cousin, it becomes just some day when you eat a lot and watch marathons. just a day that comes before black friday and cyber monday.

well this year i decided i'm not going to take it. i'm going to avoid the mall and other stores and teach my kids to be thankful. i'm not going to let myself start to stress out about what i'm going to buy, and when i'm going to buy it, and how i'm going to wrap it. i will ignore jingle bells playing at the grocery store and encourage my family to think about the blessings they've had poured on them. to that end, this year we made a tree of thanks. every family member gets their own color leaves, and every day we think of something we're thankful for, write it on the leaf, and hang it on the tree. kind of like an advent calendar for thanksgiving i guess. so far it's looking good, and it is really cool to see the things the kids are thankful for.



and you know what else? while i've heard a whole lot of thanks, i haven't heard a single request for christmas presents.

yet. :)