HOLLY JOLLY

I had our Christmas card design ready for ordering almost two months ago. Then I received a coupon and ordered those cards a month ago. I have a stack of cards on my desk waiting to be addressed and I don’t even know who I am any more. The card design came to me by accident and started with a picture taken while hunting for the new dining room table. That table is currently taking up the space where I would normally set up our Christmas tree. So while I may be ahead on the cards, I am at a loss on how I might decorate this year. I’m thinking of only putting out the stockings, hang a wreath on the door and set up the Menorah. There are also no presents. I have a brilliant idea to take the box my mattress came in that I stored in the basement and fill it with individually wrapped gifts for the Cabbage. Except, at this point, I don’t know what to get her because she’s reached that weird age of not really being into anything but her tablet.

How excited she’ll be to open a giant box containing nothing but a pair of earrings.

This year, I am surprised with how much I seem to be embracing the jolliness of the holiday season. I have always disdained the appearance of Christmas on the day after Halloween. Those radio stations that start playing all of the Christmas tunes in November get banned from being played in the car. I once worked at a department store over the holiday and was stuck folding clothes to Christmas songs on a loop for a month. That was enough to turn me into a right Grinch for all things Christmas. This year seems different. Early last week I found myself playing Andrew Birds’ new Christmas album, Hark!, on loop. Man, can that guy whistle and his rendition of Souvenirs makes me dance a silly jig. On Saturday as we drove to Costco, Michael flipped the radio over to a station already playing Christmas songs and the car turned into my own personal choir concert. He let me get through at least three songs before he turned the station with “that’s enough of that.”

With the infection rates being so high right now, we will not be traveling anywhere to visit with family and friends. Our mayor is set to announce new restrictions at noon today. Michael and I have decided to have our Thanksgiving dinner on the Friday after Thanksgiving. They have dollar oysters at Whole Foods on Fridays and our plan is to buy up a mess of them for an Oystergiving. Let’s face it, as we get closer to the end of this year, there seems to be a real urgency to celebrate. It is not so much an urgency to celebrate the end of 2020 as it is to celebrate surviving this year. Oystergiving and singing Christmas tunes at the top of our lungs seems like a pretty nice way to celebrate right now.