Two Days and Counting...

It’s the twenty-third of December, which means Christmas is only two days away.  It just doesn’t seem possible.  I’m seriously having a hard time believing it.  Sure, I can look at the calendar and see that Christmas is nearly here.  And the usual commercial cues are everywhere, announcing its impending arrival.  Houses and yards are festively decorated.  The shops are displaying all of their holiday wares.  The shopping mall will be open for the next thirty-three hours, hoping for hoards of last-minute shoppers.  We even had our work Christmas party last weekend, for heaven's sake.  No matter.  It still doesn’t feel like Christmas to me.

I know the weather is a major factor in my state of denial.  Lately, it vacillates between sweltering tropical heat with suffocating humidity and torrential monsoonal downpours, neither of which seem very Christmas-y to my North American self.  It’s much too hot to bake anything, so Christmas cookies are out.  My apartment isn’t decorated, either.  There is no tree to light up my living room or presents underneath.  (Why bother?  We’re headed down the coast.)  I haven’t even gone Christmas shopping this year.  (We’re giving each other the gift of international travel.)  

So, with Mouse not arriving until Christmas morning, I am simply unable to get into the holiday spirit.  It still seems too distant and abstract for me to feel any sort of excitement.  I’m sure this state of blasé “bah-humbug-ness” will transform into sheer holiday bliss as soon as I see his face.  I’m confident the spirit of the season will hit me at that moment.  But, until then, I have to keep reminding myself that the holidays are here…even if it doesn’t seem possible.