in my defence

Entering a grocery store to do our weekly shopping, before reaching the vegetables or diary products on our shopping list, we first had to go through a maze of high piles of boxes filled with various shapes and sizes of gingerbread cookies; shelves stocked with tinsel, ornaments, snow globes and candles; colourful collections of advent calendars; plastic reindeer and rabbits; and sparkly wrapping papers in buckets and holiday patterned gift bags hanging on hooks.

"This is too early, way too early," I expressed my opinion loudly to my family. 

"Christmas things have been out in some places since October," my daughter informed me.

"Waaay tooo early," I stressed my opinion one more time.

"I kind of like it," said my daughter, "The lights and colours and merriment."

"I like these too, but only in December. If everything is out too early, I get tired of it and December is not so much fun anymore," I was kind of irritated by how commercial the family holiday has become. Seriously, the whole buy-buy-buy-more-more-more seems to distort the whole spirit of the holiday.

My opinion was clear and expressed and we moved on to buying zucchini, cauliflower and carrots, and all the other items for the next week's meal plan. 

Later in the afternoon my youngest stood on the doorway of the living room and looked at me.

"Isn't it interesting that you are the most vocal against the holiday stuff in the store, yet right now you are eating gingerbread cookies and drink Christmas tea," she wondered.

Saying it out loud like this, oh well. 

In my defence I would say that the gingerbread cookies were shaped like flowers and the tea was oven baked apple flavoured and this could be considered winter tea rather than Christmas. 

The combination of the two was comforting.