catch it and pass it on!

The temperature has finally dropped. Saturday night I wore my pea coat. I've a few decorations on my mantle and I've done a bit of shopping in preparation for my favorite holiday. I've done all of this cheerfully, but not with the Christmas glee that usually hits me at some point during the season. And Sunday night, the Christmas spirit arrived at the most unlikely moment.
I was annoyed for various reasons, had put the kids to bed, and was washing dishes. My mom had called earlier to ask if I had borrowed her Jessica Simpson Christmas CD. I did borrow it, in the middle of the summer, and had forgotten about it. So I put it into the cd player to listen while finishing up the kitchen duties. And somewhere between Jessica and Nick crooning 'Baby, It's Cold Outside' and my favorite Christmas song, 'O Holy Night,' it hit me. The tingling sensation that you first feel as a kid and love to feel as an adult. Good will to earth and peace to men and such...angels and sparkles and the smell of scotch tape. Then yesterday I walked through a lot of real trees ready to be taken home...and that piney smell was almost enough to make me swoon. I busted out the Mariah Carey christmas cd - one of the best ever made. I've been listening to it, literally, every year since sixth grade. This year is even more special because Sean can say 'Jesus' and point to the baby in the manger in all of his Christmas books...he knows how to say 'snowman' and I'll let him eat a christmas cookie or two...and this is Christian's first Christmas...so we get a new ornament and stocking...we get to decorate our new house...we're having a decorating party with aunt Carrie...I'm just blissful with the holiday season. It's a celebration of Jesus and it's a celebration of family and friends. I guess that's why I love it so much. Everyone is supposed to be together and happy and loving. It's the rule. That's the way it should be all year long, but the time to do that just seems to disappear. I know I am rambling and sounding all Seventh Heaven...but that's just how I feel today!
So you're infected now. Whether you like it or not.
Tomorrow I'll get my holidays back in order and focus on Thanksgiving...(yay parades!)....