9 days until Christmas - Really?

Seriously?  Only nine days left?

Guess I'm not feeling it because:

Other than weekly grocery shopping I have yet to spend any time in a store to shop for Christmas, (my Christmas shopping was all done in October when Gary and I went to the States for a few days).   Yes - that must be it.

Or maybe because the weather is so warm it doesn't feel like Christmas - yeah - that could be it too!

Or maybe because I don't have to do Christmas dinner this year - so I don't have to think about all the food preparation - yup - that might be it!

I know what it is - this year I did not make 1 single handmade Christmas gift - you heard it right - not one angel, bear or any other Christmas anything... okay - that's got to be it!

My focus this year definitely is not on the "commercial" aspect of Christmas - what a nice change it is!

While others around me are stressed to the max and loosing their minds on what to buy, what to make, what to cook, what to wear, I am relaxed, content and more than happy to leave it all to someone else.

What have I been doing?

Well I have watched quite a few Christmas specials :)

 - TLC has had some great Christmas decorating shows.

 - Michael Bubble' had a lovely Christmas special (it would have been perfect, without Bieber's appearance).  I wish someone would tell me what it is about that kid that is so wonderful - he can't even sing!
 
-Turner Classic movies has had all the Christmas Classics movies like  - Christmas in Connecticut; Holiday Inn; It's a wonderful Life; Miracle on 34th street...   I have watched more Christmas shows this season than I have watched in the last 10 years collectively!

I look forward to watching A Christmas Story on Saturday night as I relax before our big singing Sunday!  That is one movie that I can so identify with.... it is exactly as memories of my own childhood are, except for the belching furnace and Christmas dinner at the Chinese restaurant - the story could have been about my family!

Any way I look at it, this Christmas is shaping up to be much different than any I have spent before, and I'm discovering it's not entirely a bad thing. 

This year is all about the "small" stuff for me.  The "small" stuff used to be the really big deal of Christmas... you know - spending time with those who mean the most to you, making time to be together, doing things together.

These days it seems the really big deal of Christmas has become how many hundreds of dollars we need to spend on each child; what designer toys and clothes we can find for the people on our lists.  It has become such a big deal because we buy all year round and Christmas isn't the one time for anything special any more.  We have gone way beyond outdoing the Jones... and the small stuff like spending an evening playing Monopoly ( the board game version) just don't seem to happen anymore.

I'm going to dig out that Monopoly game, and we are going to sit down as a family and play it one evening - without cell phones by our sides, without remote controls or game controllers in our hands, or without computer screens blaring in our faces. 

Well - maybe I am feeling it after all -  I am just feeling it a bit different this year, is all!

Not entirely a bad thing, I'm thinking!