Christmas Fast Approaching

I don't know why for sure but Thanksgiving and Christmas really caught us by surprise this year.  My internal clock is feeling like it is only early autumn.

It isn't like we've been busy with a full schedule of events or travel.  We've been home.  

The summer was wet and pretty much non-existent.  It doesn't even feel like we had a summer.  Summer and fall have been filled with waiting for our new water main to be installed and hooked up to the house.  And, more recently, we've had nothing but problems with that hook-up to the house which is needlessly sapping me of what little energy I have these days.

I'm trying to think back on what messed up our internal clocks.  This year started with a few months of COVID yet again.  Since the beginning of the pandemic, I've been sick with COVID from January through March/April every year.  This past year I picked up the virus in Manhattan just before Christmas and was sick and continually testing positive through March.  Once I recovered from that in the spring, I then got Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever due to a tick bite.  I had about two months of fevers, burning pain and antibiotics.  Then we were into the beginning of a very wet and dreary summer that was mostly spent indoors.  

Now, my internal clock is feeling like it is sometime around September and that we missed summer completely.  The reality is that Christmas is next week.  We are partly ready for Christmas...  most of the gifts have been wrapped but we're still waiting on too many that haven't even arrived at the house yet.  The house is a mess and will probably require a couple of days of cleaning in preparation of Christmas.  We are usually completely ready for Christmas before Thankgiving weekend is over so that we can relax and enjoy Christmas.  We're a bit behind this year.

We're going to be spending three days out of town even before Christmas arrives.  I'm not sure when I'm going to get a chance to straighten up the house.  I still have more work to do related to the water main hook-up.  We have two concerts to attend for two grandchildren...

So, apparently, Christmas is here.  Our Christmas tree has been up and decorated since before Thanksgiving weekend so that is good.  Just after I shot the above photo, we've been filling in around the tree with wrapped gifts.  I should shoot a few more photos with the gifts soon.  

Anyway, Christmas is fast approaching and we are not really all that close to being ready for it...