Early Arrival.

You’re either going to give me a huge thumbs-up or a very loud sigh (and an eye roll for good measure) in response to the following statement:

I’m already knee-deep in the Christmas spirit.

For most of my life, I’ve held off until Thanksgiving is over before I launch into all things Christmas. But this year, something is different. Maybe it’s the extremely premature snow storm we had two weeks ago. Maybe it’s my excitement over exchanging gifts with Erik and DIY-ing the majority of this year’s gifts. Maybe it’s a subconscious need for something to be excited about to balance out the things I stress about.

Whatever it is, I decided last week that I wasn’t going to hold back. Many people, annoyed with how commercial and over-emphasized Christmas has become, scoff at any and everyone who is even thinking about Christmas already. I’m tired of it.

This year has been a huge lesson in doing what feels right to me and not suppressing my desires. So when I had a sudden burst of gift inspiration earlier this week and had the urge to listen to Christmas music, I did just that. I queued up some holiday tunes on Spotify, flipped through my December issue of Real Simple, and made shopping lists for all the craft projects I hope to undertake. I embraced what I wanted and didn’t ignore it simply because, by some people’s norms, it’s too early.

It seems silly now that I would’ve even considered pushing aside my holiday excitement, especially over something like other peoples’ opinions. Being happy is an important part of taking care of and making time for myself; I’m glad I’m learning how to do it.