Wednesday, October 19, 2011

Random Thoughts for a Rainy Day

We went almost the entire summer without rain, but it's rained three times this week already. No one is complaining--it seems that we just recovered from the terrible drought of the last decade, only for the lake to be down several feet again. (At the height of our drought, our local water (and water that went to Florida) supply, Lake Lanier, was down almost 30 feet.)

Like any good writer, I love a dreary day! Sadly I can't spend it writing--I'm supposed to be studying muscles, bones, joints, and skin for my next anatomy exam tomorrow. So far I've slept in, worked out, and am finally eating breakfast and thinking about Christmas.

I've noticed that people are posting Nordstrom's sign a lot on Facebook:


I get it. I really do. But personally, I love Christmas. I'd like to live in a Christmas-decorated world for about 9 months out of the year, with the other 3 months decorated for fall.

This will be my first Christmas as a homeowner. I've already decided where to put my tree. As for whether or not it will be an artificial tree, I still haven't decided. The kittens destroyed last year's tree so hard that I'm loathe to go through that again, especially since it'll be on carpet instead of tile. They may be a year older, but they're not any more mature, let me assure you.

And along the Christmas thoughts, I've decided that I'm going to try and do most of my Christmas shopping in support of small business, whether local brick and mortars, or through shops like Etsy. I'm also going to try and finish most of it by the first week in December so that A) I can spend December writing, and B) those whose items I'm buying can have plenty of time to use my money to do their own Christmas shopping.

Holidays should be interesting this year. I haven't talked about it before, but my grandmother (mom's mom) has been in a terrible battle with her third round of breast cancer for the last two years. This time it metastacized in her bones. She's doing better now than she was for a while, but she's still not in great shape. For the past 3 years, my parents have gone to stay with her for Thanksgiving (she lives in Florida), but this year they've gotten her to agree to come up before Thanksgiving and stay through Christmas. So I fully expect Evan and I will be doing the double Thanksgiving this year, which we've not done before. Even worse, we'll probably be doing damage control with his parents, as it's still very iffy whether or not Evan's brother and his wife will be able to come for the holidays.

Thanksgiving, of course, will be a blur for me, since it's the final week of class before the semester ends and we have finals. I'm just going to eat my turkey and take a nap, and this year I won't be doing the Black Friday thing, unless my MIL really wants my company.

And now that I've had an internal conversation on my blog, I'm going to eat my grapefruit now...

13 comments:

Matthew MacNish said...

I too love the holidays, especially when family comes to visit. And thank goodness for the rain, they just re-sodded our neighborhood, and it saves me watering.

Lanier is still SO low though.

Teri Anne Stanley said...

I have a friend who leaves her tree up all year long. Right now it's got cobwebs and jack-o-lanterns on it. How cool is that?

TL Conway said...

Bummer you can't spend the rainy days writing--those are the best! However, education calls. Happy studying.

As for the sign, this is the first I've seen of it--maybe we don't have many/any Nordstrom's around here? Clearly, I must shop more to get to the bottom of this...

Linda G. said...

I love the Christmas holidays, too, but to me brevity is what makes them so special. If retailers start with the decorations too early, I get all "Christmased out" before December even gets here. *grin*

Old Kitty said...

I am so sorry to hear about your grandmother - I wish her all the best and send her tons of healing hugs!

Yay for your first Thanksgiving and Christmas in your new home! How exciting!!

I love Christmas, love it - but only when it's winter and it's cold outside and theres ten feet of snow and it says "December" on the calendar! LOL!!!

Enjoy your grapefruit! Take care
x

Unknown said...

See, Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday. My whole family (mom's side) gets together and celebrates Thanksgiving and then Christmas the day after. We call the whole thing Thanksmas. It kind of rocks. So by the time Christmas rolls around it's usually just me and my mom (and maybe my brother and/or grandma) AKA not a huge deal.

Also, I like grapefruit. :)

Unknown said...

I commend Nordstrom! I hope they start a trend, though I've already seen Christmas items displayed in big box stores like Wal-mart. I swear, my thought was: That reminds me, I have to buy Halloween candy...

Isn't this rain awesome? Though, my run today was horrible. Not because of the rain, but that wind kicked my @$$!

Good luck on your anatomy test!

Alex J. Cavanaugh said...

One month of Christmas decorations is enough for me, so I like Nordstrom's decision.
Thanksgiving is going to be a blur for you, isn't it?

Portia said...

Ha! Let me know what you decide with the tree! I can't wait to hear what trouble your kitties get into this holiday season :-)

—Portia

Jessica Lemmon said...

I'm like Linda, I too get Christmased out if I start too early. Maybe because fall seems to zoom by so fast.

Yesterday it rained alllllllll day. I did the typical writer thing and donned an old sweater and sat at my laptop/iPad all day. It was bliss!

We do double Thxgvg every year and it's exhausting! Hope this holiday season doesn't wear you out too much with all you have to do!

DL Hammons said...

Pssssst. I left the lights on my outside tree's this year. It was Christmas all year long! :)

Tara said...

I totally remember the kitty-tree destruction of last year. *snort*

Sorry about your grandmother. Cancer is so, so tough.

I enjoyed the internal conversation. :)

Lola Sharp said...

I am sorry about your grandmother. I didn't realize it got worse. I'm glad she'll be up in your area though, so you'll get to spend some real time with her.

Your love of cool weather, dude, you should live in Maine or someplace North.

I love that you have thought out such kind and thoughtful ways to do your holiday shopping. Good karma, love. *hugs*

Hugs,
L