holiday season begins

vanilla clove scent

wafting through the shopping mall

prompting them to spend

We have returned from our jaunt down "south," to Pennsylvania. I can't remember where along the trip down that the snow disappeared, but on the way home yesterday, just north of Binghamton on Route 81, the snow started appearing on the ground again. We came home to just slightly less snow on the ground than when we left on Thursday.

We had a really lovely Thanksgiving holiday with Tom's family. Thursday's meal was a very nice feast, and Matt enjoyed his annual Thanksgiving football game in Uncle John and Aunt Kim's back yard. We had a great time playing a game called "Apples to Apples" on Thursday evening before heading to Sue and Steve's down near Philadelphia. Friday was a busy and fun day, which included a visit to a great bead store in the morning, some time at Dave & Buster's, a movie (Madagascar 2), and dinner at a yummy Chinese-Japanese restaurant. Sue and Steve are always thoughtful and generous in hosting and making us feel at home, and this visit was no exception.

As soon as we got home, we started our annual tradition of putting up the Christmas tree and window candles. It was a big job, but made all the more enjoyable by putting on some favorite Christmas music. I really enjoy the extra lights at this dark time of year!

I guess it is just hard to believe that December is upon us. So much to do in the weeks ahead. My paper is due a week from Tuesday, so I plan to work on that a bit today and put the finishing touches on it next weekend. Matt has his holiday concert on Thursday. I look forward to getting started on my Christmas cards. As always, I will do my best to not let the frenzy of the season get to me. It is supposed to be a holiday of peace and love, not of greed and materialism. I plan to tune into the joy of the beautiful Christmas music as often as possible.