Really, though, I am not terribly stressed. I am not so much in the Christmas spirit in the house, but I LOVE seeing lights on more neighbors' houses each day on my way home. I love that this weekend DH will finish the shrubbery lights (and maybe I will have time to go get the lighted grapevine moose from Target that I have coveted for years). I don't watch many commercials (oh TiVo how I love thee) and don't go to the mall, so for me, the approach of Christmas has been slow and deliberate. I limit my exposure to the bits I could do without, and the rest of it maintains that magical quality it had when I was a kid and Mom was in the best mood she'd be in all year. (This does not mean to say that I didn't stress about the cost of the as yet unbought gifts on Tuesday night when I discovered that I'd inadvertently paid December's mortgage TWICE. Oy.)
Yesterday I found a channel on XM radio called Radio Hanukkah. I had no idea. It was hilarious, listening to traditional sounds of the music, the minor key, the clarinet-ty tunes, over a reggae back beat, complete with some Jamaican-accented rap. (I do recognize, unversed in Judaism though I am, that it is highly unlikely that was a traditional song.) Awesome. I love the festive holidays. All of them. Secular, religious, patriotic, all of them. Spectacle is my favorite mode of expression (so long as the spectacle is not me, of course).
Anyway, I suppose I am being so effusive with the love of the season because last night I got lots of sleep. The previous night (that of the mortgage payment discovery) was quite restless, sleepless and yucky. Even the dogs had nightmares. Last night, I was in bed at 8:30 and I slept until almost 7am today. Completely glorious. They say you can't "make up" lost sleep, but it sure feels wonderful to try.
