WRITER'S BLO(G/CK)

The post that was on the schedule for today is not happening right now. In order for me to write that post, two things have to happen. The first of those is that I have to do some research, which I have not yet done. The second thing is that my brain has to return to its usual level of semi-competence. My CFS has been more problematic than usual for the past week and a half or so, and a large part of that involves sporadic stretches of brain fog. So, I’ve pushed today’s original blog topic to somewhere after the new year. Not exactly sure when. But that left me looking at a hole in the schedule for today. There wasn’t anything on the schedule that I felt I could move up into today’s slot. And nothing I saw in my list of unscheduled topics really appealed to me. However, there was an idea that had been floating around in my brain for a week or so. It was floating in an area of my brain that I usually try very hard to ignore, but on this occasion it seemed like it might just have t...

In exactly three weeks it will be Christmas day, so I figured I’d do a full-on Christmas post. (Is it possible that I’ll be doing another Christmas post in exactly three weeks? Quite possible, yes.) In previous posts here on the blog I’ve already covered Christmas music and Advent. So now I just have to tackle all of the other assorted Christmas topics. This post is also an example of how much happier I’d be as a blogger if I had been regularly taking photos throughout my life and then making sure to keep those photos in a safe place. I was able to find one photo of my old traditional holiday scene. No photos of any of my old Christmas trees at all. This post should be far more visually representative of my Christmastime history than it is. (Deep sigh.) Anyway…let’s talk about Christmas, shall we? Christmas Shopping I used to love Christmas shopping. When I was young, my Aunt Grace would take me out shopping every year so that I could buy Mom’s presents for her birthday (Dece...

The Christmas season has always been a very big part of my life, and Advent has always been a very big part of my Christmas season. And as today marks the beginning of the 2022 Advent season (nonsecular Advent, anyway), I decided to make that the topic of today’s blog post.   When Does the Christmas Season Start? There seems to be some disagreement on exactly when the Christmas season starts. According to modern consumerism, the Christmas season can start as early as August, with holiday merchandise sharing the seasonal aisles with the Back to School supplies on store shelves. According to my dear Aunt Grace, the Christmas season didn’t begin until Thanksgiving dinner was over. (Mom usually followed Aunt Grace’s declaration of when the Christmas season started to the letter, ending the year’s moratorium on Christmas music upon our return home from Aunt Grace’s house late Thanksgiving afternoon/evening.) Aunt Grace died of cancer before ‘Black Friday’ evolved into the commer...