On being thankful

2007 November 10
tags:
by Kirsten

Every once in awhile, I’m so thankful. Like when my iron count was a little low and I didn’t have to give blood, avoiding possibly passing out. Or when I started a new job and didn’t have any vacation time, so I couldn’t pay $600 to travel to wear teal taffeta in a wedding. And today, I am thankful that I don’t work at the Dallas radio station that’s been playing Christmas music since Nov. 1.

Of course, I’m not opposed to celebrating Christ’s birth before Thanksgiving. I would even be OK with us starting the celebration in … say, September. But do we need Gloria Estefan telling us about Christmas through your eyes, several times a day? No. We most definitely do not. At least I can change the station, but those poor people who work there cannot.

Half of me wants to boycott Christmas music altogether this year. To strike against the commercialized, materialistic season that has taken over what Christ’s birth is really all about. But then the other half of me, the practical half, realizes that I’d spend my first holiday season in eight years without N’Sync’s “Kiss me at Midnight,” and that’s just killing tradition.

I see only one positive thing about prematurely ushering in our mall Santas and twinkle lights to the incessant Christmas tunes: We can replace the creepy mini-scarecrows that sit on porch swings and in front yards. How is it that autumn is represented by pumpkins, yellow leaves and little people dressed in real clothes and stuffed with hay — or worse, newspaper?

At least none of my neighbors are on the stuffed clothes bandwagon. I’m thankful that I don’t have to walk past mini-people to get to my apartment. This is a season of giving thanks.

4 Responses leave one →
  1. Laura permalink
    November 10, 2007

    Kirsten’s just upset because by the time she was ready to put up her scarecrow family display on her porch, Hobby Lobby was already sold out :)

  2. November 11, 2007

    I’m with you on the music thing. I don’t think I can take any more Amy Grant, my sister really ruined it for me back in the day. I’ll let the N’Sync slide though. But Laura’s right, Kirsten secretly wanted to put up a scarecrow family, she was scrambling to find enough newspaper to stuff their shirts with :)

  3. malia permalink
    November 12, 2007

    Hahahaahahaaaa this is the funniest blog yet! I am laughing out loud in the coffee shop…I am with you, I am not into Christmas music BEFORE Thanksgiving, come on, let’s not fast forward life, but enjoy it moment by moment! :) Oh, and my neighbor put up this scarecrow with spider webs connecting it to the tree it was standing next to…sick.

  4. Margo permalink
    November 12, 2007

    I’m trying to get the jest of your blog as I pull out the dusty trees from the basement – only three Christmas trees this year. If they weren’t decorated and the cards out by Thanksgiving – I would surely have failed in keeping with tradition!

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