Hi folks, I hope you're having a good Cyber Monday. That at least sounds better than just Monday. I guess. Actually, I don't do much on-line shopping so it's just terminology for me. But anyway it's the holiday season right?

So being the good Lutheran that I am, I feel obliged to tell you that yesterday was the start of a new church year. It was the first Sunday in Advent. That's the 4 weeks of preparation before Christmas. We not only celebrate that Christ was born, but that He will come again. This is a season of preparation as we study what happened in the time leading up to His birth and the signs we are told that will appear when He comes again. The message for this first week: Be prepared. It can happen anytime. Nobody knows the day or time when He will come again.

Very good. A lot of people don't know this, but we aren't supposed to listen to Christmas carols until Christmas and during the 12 days of that season. Hmm. I use my individual discresion on that one. Tell it to my 4 Christmas CD's, the $8.00 in Christmas tunes I downloaded last week, or the radio station I have preset that plays all carols, all the time from now until Christmas. So I like this season and want to enjoy the music that goes with it. So what? That's one of those things that falls in the "no big deal" category for me. I respect that we won't sing carols in church until December 24th and I'm ok with that. They don't have to listen to my iPod or car stereo. Good enough.

Anyway, this brings to mind a couple of things for me that are oddities during the holiday season. Who me, odd? Who would have thought it? But seriously ...

First, I don't tell many people this but I'm allergic to pecans. Normally that's no big deal - until the holiday season, when they're in season and in everything. I have one of those injector pens that I can use if I accidentally eat something with it, but I've gotten pretty good at sniffing them out. I hate telling people that I have this allergy, though, because they freak out. Take, for example, this conversation that took place at a party a few years ago when my husband told the hostess I was allergic to pecans:

Rick: "You know, Sherri's allergic to pecans. Do any of these cookies have pecans in them?"

Hostess: "OH MY GOD, SHE'S ALLERGIC TO NUTS!!! I COULD HAVE KILLED YOUR WIFE!!!!!!!!!!!!! SHERRI'S ALLERGIC TO NUTS EVERYBODY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! COME HERE AND LET'S CHECK EVERYTHING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"

And then the whole room was staring at me while she did a (very loud) dissertation on her buffet. Yea, she was the one screaming but everybody was staring at me, and I didn't say a word. I haven't gone back to THAT party since.

I mean, how embarassing! It's not my fault and I wonder if people realize how small you feel when they scream out something like that. It gives the impression that you're Tiny Tim and everybody better back off and be careful!

My second issue is that I have just recently come to the point where I don't hate/dispise/detest poinsettas. There's some history here. My maternal grandmother died during the holiday season (December 6th if you're morbidly curious) and everybody sent poinsettas for her funeral. No kidding, that's the only flower they sent: Red poinsettas. Lovely. The house was full of them. I'd seen them at church and we'd had one or two in the house every holiday season but they were EVERYWHERE, which I guess left the impression of "funeral flower" on my tender, 12 year old mind. I noticed that Mom even quit having them around for a while after that, but in time they came back (in much smaller quantities). Anyway, I successfully evaded them until two years ago when we moved in the house. It was then that both Rick and Mom decided that a new house means more formal decorating, and poinsettas are part of those decorations.

Darn. So two years ago I began the process of getting over my aversion to poinsettas. Here's a sample of the conversation I had with the cashier the day I bought my first poinsetta:

Cashier: "These are buy one, get one half off today. Do you want another one?"

Me: "Why would I want two? I don't want this one."

It helped to find they do sell them in different colors, although I still cringed every time I came in the door and saw that big red thing on my entryway table in 2007. Last year I got a white one for that table, and it worked better. Yesterday, Rick got out both the red and the white from the attic and said he wanted them both displayed this year. So I put them out and you know what? They aren't bothering me for the first time in 22 years. Yet. Although I feel it necessary to tell you that Big Red is relegated to a dark corner of the living room that doesn't draw much attention. Still, it felt good to put them up and not have fragmented memories of funerals and grief to overwhelm me. For the first time, they weren't reminders of anything but holidays in my own home. Perhaps I'm making progress. Or perhaps, finally, I'm growing up and putting my own meaning on things. That's amusing.

So there you have it - two tidbits of holiday information on me that you didn't know, didn't ask for, and are probably wondering what the heck you're going to do with now. It's alright. This is a blog - the place where I purge those interesting snippits of what makes me what I am.

Just don't send me pecans. Send Christmas music. Lots of it. "The Carol of the Bells" is my favorite.

Have a great day everybody and I'll see you later!

Bye!