christmas spirit

I am one of those people who generally hates listening to Christmas music before Thanksgiving and after New Years. I can't stand the fact that radio stations start playing the music the day after Halloween. And you even see Christmas trees being set up simultaneous to the Halloween decorations being taken down in stores. It usually bothers me. But for some reason, this year, my Christmas spirit snuck up on me. Now, I'm not saying that I have changed. Only to a point--as in a few days before Thanksgiving. =D I had this sudden urge to listen to Mariah Carey--her Christmas album. Love it. I grew up with it and I love it. It's not Christmas without Mariah Carey singing "All I want for Christmas is You" in the background.

Well, my early Christmas spirit can probably be more understood by knowing that I didn't have a Thanksgiving this year. At least, not a real one. My Thanksgiving weekend was chaotic and absolutely extraordinary. I loved every moment. My family came up to Utah for my Aunt's wedding on Friday (yes, the day after Thanksgiving). But since her reception included a dinner, we decided we didn't want to make a huge dinner for the 60-someodd people in my family--TWICE. So we had to forego our Thursday turkey feast. I never had a real Thanksgiving dinner. The reception dinner was exceptional, but the only food of the evening remotely resembling Thanksgiving was the turkey. Oh, don't worry. I got all of my favorites (mashed potatoes, stuffing, sweet potatoes with brown sugar, etc)--I just didn't eat them all on the same day. Literally. I had mashed potatoes on Wed. Sweet potatoes on Thursday. Turkey on Friday and stuffing on Sunday. Such a bizarre Thanksgiving. Hence, the strange Christmas spirit coming on to me early.


One of the things that gets me most excited about Christmas (besides spending a TON of time with my family) is the twinkling lights everywhere. On houses and christmas trees....just everything seems to twinkle.



And on my Thanksgiving weekend, I was able to enjoy an evening stroll with my family around Temple Square in SLC to enjoy the lights. I had so much fun taking pictures and trying to keep my fingers and nose warm. And afterwards, we went out to a late dinner at Zupas where we all had hot soup and panini's. It was delicious!