12.19.18

I keep having my first HOLY! IT’S THE (fill in the blank)th OF DECEMBER moments of the year today. I don’t know why, but I feel like the 19th (NINETEENTH!) is a real eye opener. The first wave hit me while I was brushing my teeth this morning. I looked at the digital weather display and noticed that big 19. I did a double take. Then a triple take.

Six days until Christmas. And I’m at the point where I’m way more interested in the new year than I am in Christmas.

We are six days away from Christmas and I’m about to become more of a temporary rink rat than I have been in years. I’ll be spending the next three nights at Rogers Arena for hockey/lacrosse/hockey and on the other side of all that, it’ll be Christmas Eve.

We have relatively quiet Christmas celebrations in our family. On Christmas Eve, Kevin and I largely do our own thing. Recently that has meant going to a Christmas Eve service at a local church then coming home and having snacks while playing a board game and listening to Christmas carols. On Christmas Day, it’s us, my parents, my brother and his girlfriend and her son, afternoon gift opening and evening dinner. This year, my brother is working on Christmas night so it’ll be even quieter than normal. I like that we keep it low key.

My work schedule right now – or, more importantly, my workload is intense. Two more days and that should subside, but for now, let’s just say that I’m thinking about video games a lot.

I’m feeling thankful, though. I’m hearing many murmurs from friends and coworkers who feel that they’re missing the holiday spirit or can’t get into it this year. Me, I feel like we’ve managed to enjoy a lot of the seasonal delights that I sometimes feel that I miss. All our shopping is done, our decorations are up, the wrapping has been started and I don’t think I have anything to stress about. At the same time, I’m making notes about how I’ll do things even better next year.

Are you in the Christmas spirit this year? What’s left on your holiday to do list?