Happy Advent! (Raquel)
It’s like Merry Christmas, except earlier. 
This is the time of year where I desperately try to finish Christmas presents and wonder how I could possibly be so far behind when I’ve been working on them all year, become convinced that I’ll never really finish in time this year, and finally slide in just under the wire with everything wrapped up and wrapped by Christmas Eve. The time of year when I stare in puzzled confusion at people complain about the snow and look around thinking we could stand to have a few more inches of fluffy white stuff on the ground. (For the record, I really like ice too, but that does get inconvenient when it comes to driving around.) The time of year when we pull out all the classic Christmas music (Piggy pudding?!?), try to keep the baby from eating the decorations, and brush the tinsel off our clothes.
This year I even got around to decorating my room before Christmas. It’s mostly some silver garland, but hey, I’m too busy to make black ornaments to go with it, so I’ll take what I’ve got. I’m considering getting a tiny tree to do up in true gothic Christmas style, but I doubt it will happen. Perhaps I’ll get one for next year at the after-Christmas sales.
I’ve discovered that actually enjoy the pre-Christmas rush. I’m not convinced that extends to the desperate push to get presents done, but I suspect that it might. I know that I like Christmas shopping, even when that means standing in the middle of the thrift store with two children who have bags full of change, presents to buy for each other, and two presents they’re going together on for two different people (with different prices, of course), trying to figure out how much money each of them have left and how in the world we’re going to check out without anyone seeing their Christmas present. I love the thrill of having cut forty-seven two-inch lengths of dowel rod for some mysterious secret project no one can make any sense out of. Oooh, and yesterday I made the cutest little secret project spoiler removed you’ve ever seen! I can’t wait until Christmas! Did I mention that I love the feeling of not being able to wait until Christmas?