Taking A Walk on a Grey November Day

Oh November!  November!  More than two weeks have gone by already in November.  And what have I been doing?  not even appreciating November for all that it's worth.  I should be listening to beautiful songs while snuggling up under a blanket, reading a book, and sipping on hot apple cider.  And I have been wasting it with what - studying?  Studying is nine months of the year, but November?  November only comes once.
And for me November is Christmas.  I can hear you now - the outrage!  "November is not Christmas!  November is fall/the onslaught of winter.  November is Thanksgiving!  November is the leaves on trees that you have taken a picture of.  November is special!  Don't lump November with Christmas.  Christmas needs to but out and realize that it is only one day - December 25th."

Oh, but you don't understand November!  You don't understand Christmas!  You don't understand magic!  Christmas isn't just December 25th.  Christmas is the whole months of November and December.  Christmas is an entire season.

Christmas is the celebration of Christ's birth.  Christmas is magic.  Christmas is family and Thanksgiving and gratitude and yummy food and music and cold weather all rolled up into one.  Christmas is the reason people magically become nicer to strangers and more willing to sing songs to old people they are not related to and to give things to people they love.  Christmas is the reason I'm allowed to get teary-eyed when I watch The Incredibles.  Christmas is the reason each member of my family gets approximately 7.2 times funnier when we are all together.  And why we sound better when we sing together.  Christmas is talking in British accents and wearing tights.  Christmas is knowing what's important and loving it the most.

So yeah, I sort of wish Christmas were 12 months a year.  But I'll settle for 2.  And maybe we just define Christmas differently, you know?

Merry Christmas everyone!