Ah, the holidays!

For those who know me pretty well, you know that I am a Christmas freak. It's my favorite time of the year. Children's excitement over the season just doesn't compare. I love the colors, the music, the lights, the decorations, the specials and productions, the traditions, the goodies suddenly coming out of even the most dormant of kitchens. I certainly didn't complain that I had a holiday wedding last year. And most of all, I love Christmas Eve for the Christmas Eve service where our entire attention is focused on God's blessings through the birth of His Son. There is no more magical, wonderful, and reverent time for me, except perhaps Easter weekend. I LOVE Christmas Eve service and the opportunity to worship my God amidst my favorite time of year. Christmas is a total package for me of both culture and faith, but Christ is definitely the best and most important part of it all, the very center of why we even celebrate. So, while I may deplore Hobby Lobby putting up Christmas trees and ornaments in July (which they did), it certainly didn't stop me from taking a tour of the Christmas department every time I went in! And I was scandalized that "It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year" was used for a school-shopping commercial!

This time of year gets hard for me. I can see the Holidays coming down the pike and I start getting antsy. How long will September last? Will I be able to enjoy October as much as I hope when I know Thanksgiving and Christmas are just around the bend? It becomes a time of extreme self-denial (or perhaps, self-preservation) at this time of year to avoid any reference of Christmas because I will immediately go into the holiday spirit.

Enter yesterday's trip to Kansas City. I was in KC to get measured for a bridesmaid's gown for my friend Kala's wedding and to get some advice on how to order it (seeing as the wedding takes place just 6 short weeks after Elizabeth's due-date. Not arrival, due-date). Said errand didn't take hardly any time at all once we'd arrived in town, so Mom and I took a jaunt over to Kohl's. And as we were both sprinting for the bathroom at the back fo the store, I saw my doom. Next to the customer service and restroom area, Kohl's always manages to set up their seasonal items. And instead of featuring Halloween chotchkies, as Halloween is the "season" coming up, instead it was filled with Christmas trees and Christmas music. Groan.

On coming out of the restrooms, I remarked to my mother (who knows my craze for the Holiday season) about the display and we made a pointed effort to walk away from the area (not without me craning my neck after it to see the glowing, beautiful Christmas trees). Yet somehow we ended up circling back through the store and I found myself milling among the ornaments and listening to a random mix of Christmas music. I fingered glass ornaments shaped as frogs in prince and princess costumes (what do these have to do with Christmas, by the way?) and shook my head over a Santa Claus in a cowboy outfit. I goggled the green, red, and gold traditional ornaments and picture frames decorated in Christmas-colored buttons. And did my darnedest not to hum along to "Silent Night," one of my favorite Christmas carols. Oh, the excitment! It was hard to keep it down.

It is now ten weeks from Thanksgiving and that time when my sister will allow me to celebrate the Christmas Season and enjoy its Spirit unhindered. (She is quite particular about giving every holiday it's due and insisting Thanksgiving not be overshadowed, though let's all admit it, it is.) I have enough to anticipate, I think, just with Eliza's arrival. And let's hope she's not too overly late, as I have just a little over 8 weeks left until her due-date and it would be so awfully hard to add another in anticipation of her late arrival. I hope that waiting for her to come will help put off feeling overly anxious for that [real] "Most Wonderful Time of the Year".