grinchy

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I honestly cannot believe that this is Christmas week. All the radio ads keep counting down the days (8!) until the mad consumerist euphoria that is Christmas Day and even all the radio DJ's keep stating the weather with the fact that it's Christmas week, "It's a beautiful 27 degrees on this Monday before Christmas weekend here in New York City...." The weird thing is that it has hardly hit me that it is indeed Christmas time. I feel like last year at this time I was so much more into the spirit of everything. I mean, New York definitely does this holiday right - lights on every bare tree branch and outlining every building, the charity bell-ringers out in force, snowflakes and Christmas colors in the store windows that line every street and avenue, hawking great deals on gifts for your loved ones. Even my new neighborhood - in all its Italian Catholic glory - has lights strung over the main avenue, and wreaths in windows, lights on bannisters. Yet still I feel like there wasn't enough lead-in to Christmas this year - and the thought that in a week all those lights and cheer will be gone and we will be faced with simply cold, bleak winter...well it's just a shame I didn't get more enjoyment out of anticipating this holiday. Still, I'm looking forward to seeing some old friends in Harrisburg again this year, and then taking that long flight to Cali for family time on the actual day of Christmas. Then I shall be back again, to embark on Year 2012 in New York.