Good Cheer

Christmaaaas Christmaaaas tiiiiiime is heeeere. Tiiiiiiime for joooooy and tiiiiiime for cheeeeer. Name that tune!

Ah yes, the joys of the season! I am such a holiday fiend, it drives Husband crazy. Think what would happen if the Ghost of Christmas Present, Santa Clause, the Abominable Snowman, The Three Wise Men, Tiny Tim, feelings of goodwill, a Christmas Tree and the abstract idea of Holiday Cheer all found a way to mate (yes, cross-species mating seems awfully challenging, particularly when all the subjects are male and some have no bodily form to speak of, but do try to use your imagination). Whatever moral abomination would spring forth from such a festive union- yeah, I can identify with that.

Being in a hotel for the holidays was not really as bad as I was anticipating- in part because I was anticipating horrors so depraved and lonesome and devoid of all joy that man has not yet obtained the mental capacity to experience such tragedy, but also because the staff at our hotel has been wonderful. They've come by with all kinds of cheerful trinkets, my favorite among them were the chocolate-filled Advent calendars and the creepy Santa and Nutcracker cylinders holding dark chocolate covered squishy gingerbread cookies. What could be better!?!

I'll tell you what could be better- a real, live(ish), free, piney Christmas Tree all a-light and festive. We had no real intentions of having a tree this year for several reasons, chief among them the whole "being in a hotel" thing, but Husband and I decided to enjoy the very last day of the German Christmas Markets yesterday in downtown Stuttgart, and as the vendors were packing up and tearing down when the market closed, we noticed vendor after vendor throwing away loads of pine branches and trees and things that they had used for decoration. Brave Husband gets bonus points for pantomiming some kind of "Can we please keep your trash" message to one of the German vendors, and we ended up with an honest-to-goodness Christmas tree. It's about 4 1/2 feet tall and is just absolutely the most wonderful thing I've ever seen...in kind of a Charlie Brown Christmas kind of way. 

Oh! Ho ho! Hold the phone! Check the time! I can't believe it slipped past me so quickly, but alas, it is officially Christmas! Well, Merry Christmas everyone, and remember that all of this is all because God so loved the world that He gave us His only Son. What a beautiful thing to celebrate.