There’s a strange confluence of holidays happening in the suburbs right now.

On my street there’s a house that still has Halloween pumpkins decomposing on their front porch, the yard next door has a wooden turkey cutout proclaiming, “Happy Thanksgiving from the [Redacted] Family,” and both of these houses have their Christmas lights up.

Now I don’t want to be a killjoy, but maybe we could focus on one holiday at a time?

Or, at the very least, can we take a moment to be thankful for the things we DO have before we leap headlong into creating lists of all the things we don’t and want someone to buy for us?

I’m really looking at you, Memorial City Mall.  Your holiday lights have been up for two weeks now and I’m already sick of hearing “festive” music during my lunch.

I mean, I love Christmas as much as the next guy.  But it’s good for the soul to pause for a moment and reflect on all the things that are awesome in your life.  I do this on an (almost) daily basis, so Everyday is Halloween Thanksgiving for me.  And I have an awful lot to be thankful for.
But that’s a post for next week…

And you know, as I sit here and complain about this, it occurs to me that each of us has rules for how the holidays are supposed to be done.  And we scoff at anyone who doesn’t adhere to our arbitrary rules.  Clearly, I’m no better.

And honestly I shouldn’t say anything at all since I’m having my Christmas lights installed tomorrow.  Yes, I’m paying someone else to hang my lights.  It’s very much worth it to me to have this done, as a trip to the ER is infinitely more expensive.

That said, I won’t even think of turning them on until the 27th.

I mean, those are the rules.

j.s.