The Leaves are Changing Colour...String up the Garland!

The long haze of summer is finally coming to an end and the short spectacular burst of autumn is nearly here. Most attribute autumn to golden leaves, jackets and scarves, turkeys, dark skies and dewey mornings. Me, I think Christmas! Oh yes, the dirty word...Christmas. I just installed the countdown calendar on my computer and it is now officially 112 days until the day. In my "pre-eve" years, I didn't think of Christmas until about December 15th. Plenty of time to decorate, plenty of time for gifts, plenty of time to pretend to have plenty of time to get everything done. Well, I've learned my lesson. This will be the third consecutive Christmas that my holiday cards have been bought, written, stamped and then stored for a possible resurrection in the ritual routine of "This year, I'm going to (now fill in litany of Marthaesque traditions that only seem to happen in the glossy, well-lit lives of the magazine racks). I love what I do, I love my shop, I love my customers and I absolutely love the holidays...at 14 King Street West. The holidays around my house are quite a different thing. The shop is so busy, I mean "three hours of sleep" busy that it gets hard to get in the spirit of Christmas at home when you have been listening to 18 hours of non-stop Bing Crosby. Well, as the leaves turn outside, I'm turning over a new leaf in my life. The Christmas cheer is going to cascade down from all the holiday happenings at the shop to my life at home....but don't call me on this around December 15th.