Christmas Approacheth...

Christmas comes but once a year. Thank god. I used to love Christmas. I was a total freak for it. And honestly, since I have two wee ones, I still do love Christmas but for different reasons. I honestly couldn't care about getting gifts. I mean, I do appreciate what I get, but there is nothing that beats seeing my boys race into the living room and scream when they see that Santa's been there. I love Christmas Eve, when Will goes through the motions of leaving Santa cookies and milk, and a sweet picture for him to take back to the North Pole.

Even as a kid, I always loved Christmas Day because our family would gather together. It means so much, then and now, to be surrounded by our families.

I just wish that Christmas didn't become this slickly-produced, overmechandised, overlicensed monster that it's grown into. Yeah, Christmas was always in our faces when we were kids, but the merchandisers had the decency to wait until after Thanksgiving, giving us a timeline for excitement. Now? Target had back to school stuff out (starting in JULY, for chrissakes - can the kids enjoy being out of school?) in September in one aisle, and CHRISTMAS gear in the next. In SEPTEMBER. What the hell? I could buy my kids' marble notebooks in one aisle, stop off and pick up some Halloween decorations in the next, and grab some Christmas lights on my way out.

I just feel like everything is being rushed, shoved down our throats, buy buy buy now. Doesn't time pass us by quickly enough without having the end of the year shoved at us in September? I want to enjoy each day with my kids, I want to make the most of every day with my husband, my family, I don't want to blink and have to be stringing lights on my tree. I think that's another reason people are so stressed out lately. There's no time, at least that's what we're being led to believe nowadays. We've got to slow down the pace.