13 Things I Love About Christmas
1. The smells: crisp wintry air, evergreens, baked goods.
2. The (non-musical) sounds: bells (ok, approaching musical), wrapping paper tearing… you can imagine a host of sounds with me.
3. Long lines at checkout (yeh, really: folks to play with; 🙂 “captive” audiences *heh*)
4. If I’m lucky, icy, snowy weather. The better to watch all the people who should have their cars taken away from them skid, slide and generally reveal their inability to walk and chew gum at the same time, urm, reveal also their inability to drive in any sub-optimal road conditions. Yeh, I like having my view of humanity validated that way… (What can I say? I am a curmudgeon, after all! :-))
5.) The music of Christmas. Unfortunately, there’s notalotta secular stuff (and hardly any popular contemporary or even popular traditional) that’s any good. But the carols and hymns can be awe-inspiringly beautiful. And who can imagine a Christmas season without at least one hearing of St. Olaf’s choirs singing “Beautiful Savior” a cappella? Well, I suppose any choir would do (though I also like a particular SSA arrangement. :-))
6.) The lights.
7.) The greetings of strangers smiling, “Merry Christmas!” or even the ocassional “Bah, humbug” curmudgeonly response (with the sheepish, almost secret smile lurking underneath).
8.) Heck, I’ve even been known to break my semi-rule of “Gatherings larger than five or six people are anathema” rule and attend a Christmas party *shudder* during this season.
9.) The presents. Not the getting of them. I have more stuff and junk than I need (actually, it’d be a gift to me for folks to take some-a my junk off my hands, if you know what I mean). The giving of them. Fun. But I’ll control myself. Too much fun can be deleterious to one’s financial health, my inner tightwad warns. 🙂
10.) The foods. More the cooking than the eating, now, since I find myself strangely unable to eat as much as once I could. No, I’ll not bake, but I will make different foods than usual for the holidays. Sometimes simple meals, sometimes a more complex menu. Sometimes, it’s just having everyone in the kitchen working at once that’s the wonderful part.
11.) The memories. Of family, children, extended family, friends.
12.) And remembering them, renewal or strengthening of contacts and bonds of love.
13.) The One whose birth we celebrate this time of year (even those who do so unaware).
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Hapyy TT.. great list 🙂
Thanks for sharing this very festive TT! I?m a Christmas lover as well =)
Happy TT from Germany,
S.
Bah Humbug…and a happy TT.
this is a sweet list…and you have grought up many things that I hadn’t thought about…like the wrapping paper sound, St Olaf’s choir…
We had a snowstorm here recetnly and I know a guy who broke hi leg walking across teh Albertson’s parking lot to get eggs. Why don’t people just stay inside?