Am I hearing Jingle Bells in the offing?

Disclaimer: I have been told, by those who don't know, that I tend to be a bit "preachy."  You will notice there is no preaching of any kind contained herein, nor is there any hellfire and damnation scorching the page disguised as love and concern. You know I would not want to do anything that is offensive....ah, then, maybe hell is freezing over---and it is not even the season for freezin'!

Have you thought about this year is almost half over and it was only a week or so ago (--or so it seems!) we were ringing in the new year?   It will be Christmas in a few short weeks (or so it will seem!), and we will once again be wondering aloud to ourselves and those who will dare to get within ear shot...where the time went. How did it go so quickly?  

Are you ready?  Have you ordered your Christmas Cards yet? Made a shopping list? Made a mail order or online order for those special people on your gift list?  If you haven't, you are going to be rushing around trying to get everything ready for Santa's big night at the last minute! Trust me on this one--now, is the time to begin the preliminary work for the holiday season.

I have designed my Christmas letter/card, made a list of each gift to each person on my list, and am perfectly ready for Christmas!  My tree sits on the ready to be pulled down from its storage place. It will gracefully accept the ornamentation I have planned for it and will shine brightly for all the passing world to admire. My Christmas Eve Dinner is planned right down to the homemade pickles that will be served with the Shrimp Scampi, Clam Chowder, Salad, and Cheesecake. Friends and family will be invited to share.  Christmas Day Luncheon will consist of roasted goose and wild rice with pecans stuffing--wouldn't be Christmas without stuffing. A wondrous array of vegetables and salads will accompany the entree. The smell of fresh-baked pastry and yeast rolls will tantalize the sense of smell and the appetite. The desserts will make the sideboard creak because of the sheer number and weight of them all.

By 3:00 P.M. Christmas Day, all who have partaken of the Yuletide feast will be groaning and moaning because they have eaten too much. The discarded gift wrap will have made its way to the trash, the gifts that have to be returned will be piled in the foyer, some of the guys will be starting to nod off in front of the TV...most of the gifts that require "some assembly" will already be partially assembled, and someone will be asking if anyone is ready for dessert yet...but,..... Ah, the joy of Christmas.

Now, would you like to hear the truth?  I have, indeed, decided what to give to each person on my list and that all will be easily wrapped and distributed. I may or may not send a holiday greeting this year, and my tree will probably not see the light of day in 2010. BECAUSE, if I have my way this year, I will send my children and my grandchildren their gifts in November...maybe early part of December, and I will be booked into a snuggly mountain cabin for the holidays. I will eat dinner at a nice restaurant and settle down to watch old Christmas movies being warmed by a lively fire in a wood-burning fireplace and have some really good snacks to nibble..and Santa can do his thing somewhere else. I love the bearded ol' elf, but the best thing he can allow me for Christmas is a few days when I am not rushing around, shopping, wrapping, baking, decorating, cooking, baking, singing, cooking and worrying about if I have done an adequate enough job of choosing gifts.

Take me from the cabin right into an evening of merriment in ringing in 2011...when I do not have to do dishes, I do not have to cook one mouthful of food, and I can sleep as late as I want on New Year's Day.
January 2nd is time enough to work and worry what the next day brings....because soon enough it will be April 15th...and we all know what that brings....one thing about tax day....I am not required to cook anything but the books, I do not have to clean anything but my bank account, no one wants to have a party--who can afford one?---no one but the IRS expects me to give them a gift, and most of all----drum roll please..... it is a month or more before I have to start planning for Christmas again! Isn't it a wonderful time of the year?

Note: For all of those to whom I would otherwise be sending a note of Merry Christmas....please except my premature, but nonetheless sincere, wishes for a most excellent Yuletide season, and a very prosperous new year!