No Tinsel, No Lights, No Tree for Me... Not Until December

I have read several updates on Facebook this week about people decorating for Christmas already. I am not there. It shakes me when there are Christmas things in the stores before Halloween is done. Decorating this early for a festival that occurs on December 24th/25th seems ridiculous to me. I know, some of you out there might decorate this early. That's your prerogative. But this is the nature of our society of excess. We take a 12 day Festival that is supposed to START on Dec 25 (I Believe - possibly the 24th, but Christmas kicks off the 12 days of Christmas, not ends it) and then we start the festival atmosphere on November 15th or earlier and then we lose the specialness of the actual holiday. What makes Christmas special if we celebrate it for a month and a half? I can see the coordinated holiday parties occurring prior to the day, but I just think that we live such spoiled lives in our society as it is, that to demand the lengthening of the Christmas holiday just 'cause we can seems self-indulgent and kind of misses the point. I don't want to be a scrooge, 'cause that's not what is motivating this. I love the holidays, especially Christmas, I just think that all this early decorating and celebrating dilutes it and it loses it's meaning (whatever that is for you).

Celebration!

This Saturday I had a wonderful time celebrating turning 40! Special thanks go out to the Annemarie and Anne Marie who helped with the pre-party warm-up and a variety of other prep activities. Also, props to Mark for his karaoke skills and the flowers and all that. It was great. It was so much fun to see those who came out and sing, and dance and eat together. I wish that I had stepped in a little earlier so that the invites would've gotten out in time for some people to "save the date" but as it was I was not disappointed. I had a nice mix of "long time Fort McMurray friends" and "new Edmonton Friends" and of course, since I know so many musical theatre folks there was a lot of good singing and lots of people willing to take risks just to have fun!