NOW It's Christmas Season

Back in early November I wrote a post about how a local station here in Cincinnati had started playing Christmas music on November 1, and how I felt that was too soon to really get into the Chrismtas spirit. Well, that feeling is gone now. It's now DECEMBER 1, and it's definitely Christmas season, and I am excited.

Last year I was so busy moving that I don't know that I ever really got into the Christmas spirit much. Sure, I thought the decorating job that Lisa did was nice, and that did get me in the spirit a little, but everything from painting to moving to work made things so harried that it was hard to really stop and smell the roses. Or more appropriately for this time of year, I guess, stop and smell the pine boughs. Or more appropriately for this time of year AND this modern world, stop and smell the pine bough-scented candles.

But this year, despite how busy I am at work, I'm really excited about Christmas. But it's been a strange year for me, though. For the last ten years or so, Lisa and I have done more and more of our Christmas shopping online. In fact, I just checked online, and last year I had 13 different Amazon orders at Christmas time, and I'm sure that I ordered a few items from other vendors as well. I think our mail man got used to delivering Amazon boxes to our house. In fact, one day in late December I happened to be going out the door as he was walking up the sidewalk. As he handed me the mail he said, "No packages today!"

This year, though, I've only ordered ONE package online thus far, and that package was ordered at Wal-Mart.com and I have to go and pick it up at a physical Wal-Mart, so it's really only sort of an online order. Everything else has been bought at a real store.  I don't know what this move back to purchasing stuff from physical stores means, whether it's a trend or not. But I doubt it. I think it just is a result of Lisa buying most of the items thus far rather than me.

Oh well, December is still very young. I may make 12 more online orders yet...