Holiday Season

I know I'm a bit of an "early riser" when it comes to holidays, but I'm already très excited about Christmas and Thanksgiving. I got my Christmas cards in the mail today that I ordered from a charity shop; it made me giddy. (<-- That's not the card, by the way.) I finally started my Christmas shopping on Saturday, after a very late start (the end of October?! I was a month overdue.), and it felt great. A few gifts are already wrapped and waiting in a shopping bag for the arrival of a tree to live under.

I've been excited about Thanksgiving even longer. And certainly longer than most Americans living in America - we Americans living abroad seem to have been thinking about it a lot sooner and with more gusto. (I look back to the emails circulating between me, Sarah and Ashley from early September/ late August regarding who was bringing what to Thanksgiving dinner...) This year for Thanksgiving, we're having a dinner at our house for family and friends in the Greenock/Glasgow area, and then possibly heading down to Edinburgh on Saturday for desserts with the Edinburghers. I can't wait. Our school chef said today he'd get me a turkey, either cooked or uncooked, however I wanted it. It's going to be a feast. It's going to be Thanksgiving. There will be kids at our dinner.

I feel thoroughly in the holiday spirit. I just had a bowl of hot cream of red pepper soup (made from scratch, I might add), and the house is quiet and cool, and it's nearly November, and it's all just perfect holidayness everywhere. I think this (wet, cold) evening calls for a lit pumpkin candle and a cinnamon bath. And a good CD, though I don't know which one. I feel happy.