December WHAT?
So... the Yule/Giftmas season has snuck up on me, it would seem. Between a prolonged work deathmarch with very little sleep or breathing space, and then getting the cold from hell which stuck around for way too long, time seems to have flown right by and I could have sworn it was November a minute ago.
All of which is basically by way of saying that it is apparently now Dec 18 (well, 19, really, since it's after midnight, but 18 is scary enough so I'm going to refuse to acknowledge the time of day for the moment) and I've only just tonight acquired a box of greeting cards to send out. And am only just starting to realize that I have less than a week in which to acquire presents for various people, who in many cases I haven't yet even got the faintest idea yet what I want to give them.
Oh yes, and haven't yet gotten around to sending out my annual web hosting invoices which I usually try to get out by, well, several days before now, at least. Which, had I done it sometime much sooner than now, would be helping with the whole gift-shopping thing, which currently must be done on rather limited funds.
Also, have lost track of how many holiday meals/rituals/feasts/gatherings of various sorts I am supposed to be making dishes for and whether I'm supposed to be bringing other things to some of them, and whether people at some of them might unexpectedly give me presents making me suddenly realize I should have something for them, and that sort of thing.
It's all kind of anxiety-inducing... So in an effort to quell the rising panic, I shall now recount the good things about this time of year:
All of which is basically by way of saying that it is apparently now Dec 18 (well, 19, really, since it's after midnight, but 18 is scary enough so I'm going to refuse to acknowledge the time of day for the moment) and I've only just tonight acquired a box of greeting cards to send out. And am only just starting to realize that I have less than a week in which to acquire presents for various people, who in many cases I haven't yet even got the faintest idea yet what I want to give them.
Oh yes, and haven't yet gotten around to sending out my annual web hosting invoices which I usually try to get out by, well, several days before now, at least. Which, had I done it sometime much sooner than now, would be helping with the whole gift-shopping thing, which currently must be done on rather limited funds.
Also, have lost track of how many holiday meals/rituals/feasts/gatherings of various sorts I am supposed to be making dishes for and whether I'm supposed to be bringing other things to some of them, and whether people at some of them might unexpectedly give me presents making me suddenly realize I should have something for them, and that sort of thing.
It's all kind of anxiety-inducing... So in an effort to quell the rising panic, I shall now recount the good things about this time of year:
- I generally actually like the whole spirit of the season, apart from the stress part. People are nicer than usual and things are pretty.
- Lights. Tacky and energy-consuming though they may be, I kind of like Christmas lights. Sometimes they are genuinely pretty (see previous point), and sometimes they are so hellishly overdone as to be unintentionally amusing, so it's kind of win-win if you think about it. You can ooh and ah, or point and laugh, depending.
- Everything has ginger in it. And by "everything" I mainly mean fancy coffees and baked goods at places like The Second Cup and Starbucks. Those who know me know that I love ginger in pretty much every form with an unholy passion. Not even just edible/drinkable forms - I even have ginger perfume (well, all right, it's actually called Shub-Niggurath, and your guess is as good as mine as to why the Black Goat of a Thousand Young should smell like three kinds of ginger, but I'm not complaining, because the only thing better than ginger is ginger + HP Lovecraft).
- Clementines. Clementines are good. Seriously, when I brought home my first bag of them for this year and ate the first one, which quickly became the first three, I considered for a moment that clementines might possibly be the single best thing about the entire Yule season. Now, of course, I can recognize that as an exaggeration, but that may be because I have not eaten any in the past hour or so, which I should probably remedy immediately. I go through a lot of clementines while they're in season.
(pauses to eat a clementine)
- Plus, I suppose, the usual things like getting together with friends and family, celebrating the rebirth of the sun and related conccepts from other religions, etc. But right now those are all tied in a little too closely with OMG-must-send-cards-must-buy-presents-must-plan-what-to-cook-for-400-potlucks-OMG-OMG-OMG. So I think I will eat another clementine and go to bed.