Everywhere I go this year, I hear someone say that Thanksgiving was late this year. This is undoubtedly true. And for me, and presumably for those making the observation, this lateness has left them less time than usual to focus on holiday tasks. My to do list this time of year rarely varies much but somehow, it always seems insurmountable right about now. I still have a lot of gifts to buy/make/find. I have the annual Christmas letter to write; as it's the 25th year of the famous letter, I can't let it go this year although I might retire it once this version gets written. I have lots of Christmas baking and cooking to do. I make and freeze a bunch of meals for my dad (and mom) as his gift. Mom hates to cook. He's hard to buy for. And he likes my cooking. Predictable and time consuming but we're all happy with the results. Several of the stocking gifts I give (every year) are also food that I make from scratch and haven't even started assembling. I spent more than 8 hours the other day making sure that my mother's present will be under the tree. (So mom, if you're reading this--and of course you are, because you're my mom--even if the gift is terrible, pretend you love it and it's the best thing ever. Thanks!) I haven't decorated my house at all beyond throwing a wreath I bought at the grocery store up on the front door. That may be the thing that gives this year. Or maybe I'll just go wrap scarves around the necks of the flock of plastic flamingos that showed up in our yard the night before Thanksgiving and are still there and call those my festive decorations. Surely my neighbors won't just shake their heads in disgust at my laziness, will they?
I may not be terribly on the ball this Christmas but I did add one new thing to my list this year and it's bringing me such happiness, with minimal effort, that I will probably keep it on the list in future years too. I am making a book advent calendar. I pull a Christmas/holiday themed book from my to be read stacks each day and post about it on Litsy (a book app I adore). Note I am not actually reading these books, at least I haven't yet. But it's fun to pull them and see what I might read in the coming weeks if I get on top of the to dos, or even if I don't and need a complete break from reality but still want to wallow in the season like I'm on track. It's interesting to see how many of the books are romances or mysteries. Maybe this is true because between them they capture the two most common emotions around the holidays: heartwarming and murderous. It probably tells you a lot about my state of mind that I am leaning more towards murderous right now!
So far my book advent calendar has these entries:
Day 1: The Last Noel by Michael Malone
Day 2: A Noel Killing by M.L. Longworth
Day 3: The Mistletoe Matchmaker by Felicity Hayes McCoy
Day 4: Mutts and Mistletoe by Natalie Cox
Day 5: Tinsel by Hank Stuever
Day 6: The Adults by Caroline Hulse
Day 7: Christmas: A Biography by Judith Flanders
Day 8: Christmas at the Vinyl Cafe by Stuart McLeanI have a big stack of others to add to my calendar as the days go by. Are you reading things for the holidays? the winter (or if you're in the southern hemisphere, summer) season? Do you have any books I definitely need to put in my list?
I plan on reading A Noel Killing next week. Hopefully next week will be calmer.
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