Tis' November

Well, October has come and gone and it is the 1st of November - only 26 days until Turkey Day and 54 days until the Big Man in the red suit comes sliding down your chimney.

Christmas decorations and merchandise have been in the stores for the past two or three weeks and now they are are beginning to have the Christmas sales . K Mart is pushing layaway and even the internet has e-layaway with lots and lots of stores participating. The biggest shopping day of the year will be coming soon.

I have a problem when they start merchandising so early....even before we have put the knife to the pumpkin or thought about how many place settings we will need for Thanksgiving dinner. Christmas is getting so commercialized. It's not about the birth of Christ any more..... it seems to be about the rushing around to see how many trees we can buy to decorate, how much shopping we can do, maxing out the credit cards. It's about how many presents we can get, how many we can return because they weren't exactly what WE wanted. Then there is the kids -- what kid needs twenty five video games? or an expensive toy that will be lost among the mountain of presents.

Why does Aunt Martha always send us homemade fruitcake? It never gets eaten. Doesn't she know we don't like fruitcake.

Then, there's the office party ---I have nothing to wear to a party. I certainly can't wear the dress I wore last year. I will need a new dress and a pair of shoes. Then there's the jewelry and the makeup and a new hairdo and the manicure and the pedicure and when all is said and done it will probably cost at least one paycheck if not two to spend a few hours with the same people I see every day. Will I impress the boss enough to get a raise? or should I try being the blonde wearing the lampshade?

During my growing up years, the stores never put our Christmas merchandise until after Thanksgiving. We were lucky to get one or two small presents, a few oranges and several sticks of candy. We only had one tree which we went into the woods and cut ourselves and drug through the forest. Our decorations were mostly homemade. Handstrung popcorn from kernels we had planted in the spring, one string of lights, homemade ornament, and a handmade star covered with new tinfoil each year always graced the top of the tree. We always put it up the Saturday before Christmas and took it down on the last day of the year.

Life was simple back then.

That's it For Today.