Is it that time already?

"It's the most wonderful time of the year! It's the hap-happiest season of all. There'll be parties for hosting, marshmellows for toasting..."

Yes. Yes, I am listening to Christmas music. This is a practice I've always detested, listening to holiday songs before the holiday has arrived. My rule has always been "No Christmas music until after Thanksgiving!"

But every year about this time I am flooded with sentimentality. I came back to Switzerland last week to find that the season has changed, that people are wearing sweaters and eating fondue again, that it gets dark early in the evening. And so I find images and feelings and scents and sounds passing through my mind. Pictures of Christmas trees, the smell of my mom's baking, the excitement of holiday shopping. I REALLY wanted hot chocolate last night! I feel transported to various scenes, like picking out a Christmas outfit at Old Navy, taking cookies down to my dad's friends at work, carrying gifts out to the car in my pajamas on Christmas morning, huddling together with friends in the marching band while waiting for the Festival of Lights Parade to start, laughing at my dog running around with his stocking, eating Christmas dinner at my aunt and uncle's and being sure that no one else's family could possibly have such a delicious feast, playing with the candle wax at the Christmas Eve service, washing sap off my hands after bringing in the tree, etc, etc.

So it's time for a little Elvis. "I hear the bells (bum, bum, bum) saying Christmas is near. They ring out to tell the world that this is the season of cheer. I hear a choir (ooh, ooh, ooh) singing sweetly somewhere. And a glow fills my heart, I'm at peace with the world, as the sound of their singing fills the air. Oh why can't everyday be like Christmas?!! Why can't that feeling go on endlessly? For if everyday could be just like Christmas, what a wonderful world this would be."