It’s the first day of the rest of my life…

…without the alphabet getting in my way. Boy, that was … interesting. But I kind of liked it even though I would definitely choose different words the next time.

So, now that I’m free to talk about whatever I want, what shall I say? We’re well down the runway of the “holiday” season and just about ready for liftoff. But I’m not ready! I ignored all the Christmas stuff in the stores – put there before Halloween for heaven’s sake. I tried to turn my ears off in a store two weeks ago when I heard Christmas carols over the loudspeaker. I have resisted every thought of purchasing gifts. Can we just go back & sit in the airport lounge for a while?

I have a plan. This week is Thanksgiving here in the U.S. I’m going to stuff myself silly. In fact, I’m well on my way – our Vestry & stewardship committee served us Thanksgiving dinner at church last Sunday. And then we’ll be with Dr. M’s family on Thursday & my family on Saturday. That is a LOT of turkey. And pie. At least I hope it’s a lot of pie.

Back to my plan. After I recover from my T-Day torpor I am going to spend some time each day thinking and reading about Advent. Just to remind myself of the reason for the season. And to slow things down a bit. And everyone is getting gift cards (or donations in their name to Episcopal Relief & Development – they have matching gifts through the end of November!). It’s Dr. M’s turn to write the annual Christmas poem so all I have to do is address the envelopes.

That all sounds manageable. We’ll see how it goes.