One friend and former colleague in Tokyo lamented having to listen to Christmas songs at the supermarket around Halloween. I have always found it difficult to get in a Christmas mood without seeing at least a little snow, so here we are, having seen and actually fiddled with, snow and almost finished the Thanksgiving leftovers, gradually getting ready to get ready to be in the mood for Christmas-yearend holidays.
It costs a lot to relocate from one part of the world to another. The cost is emotional, as well as monetary, of course, but at least part of the expense of moving for me was in shipping a lot of candles, bears and Christmas decorations that I could have replaced easily and at far less than the cost of shippping. Sigh...
Having said that though, I'm glad to have some of those familiar bears, candles and decorations here. I even found a decent replacement pseudo-tree, which is now up and looking not bad at all. So the holiday mood is gradually moving in. I've been to the mall already, helping Mom get new boots, and getting lost while trying to find the holiday meat-log shop. I did buy one gift that I actually wanted to buy, plus a couple that I frankly don't know quite what to do with because I was so besmitten by a lovely saleslady named Maya, whose sales pitch was impossible to resist (at the time). I need to watch that.
The rest of the Christmas shopping will consist of finding a bulk source of chocolate-covered cherry cordials. As the countdown continues, I have so far heard identifiably Christmas-song music only three times. Since it is just about to become December, I consider that a positive sign that I have not surrendered to the season too far ahead of plan. In any case, happy holiday of your choice, whenever and wherever that may be.
