with a rat-tat-tattle-um ho-dum-diddly-um hey it's time to take down the tree

the other day, my sisters and i spoke about the things that made this christmas not feel like christmas. for me, the main thing was that i was reading books and articles on china the whole time. for my family, it was probably the fact that i was going around sharing newly-learned facts. did you know twice as many people shop at walmart everyday as live in switzerland? did you know that mao zedong had a campaign to wipe out the four pests - rats, flies, mosquitoes, and sparrows - and that he got the people of china to do crazy things to get rid of sparrows? with the birds gone, there was a surplus of locusts that led to an agricultural disaster and the great famine in 1960. who wouldn't have wanted me around this christmas? i was a walking encyclopedia article on china.

there were other things. we had the a/c on one day, and most of the days were considerably warm. yesterday felt like a summer morning.

nana thinks someone paid the stores to stop playing certain christmas songs like "my grown-up christmas list," and i only heard my favorite pop christmas song once this holiday season. that wasn't even when we were shopping, it was at a restaurant with friends. still, once i realized we hadn't heard it enough, i think i sang it enough times to make up for it.




last christmas, i gave you my heart. the very next day, you gave it away. this year, to save me from tears, i'll give it to someone special.




i'll bet he even does the same hand motions as i do. look how cool he is. how could he not?




and i'm leaving today because i haven't worked nearly as diligently as i should've. the empty house in waco should allow me an environment to get some stuff done. i think this is the earliest i've ever left during the christmas break.

but all of that stuff isn't really what makes christmas. that's why we didn't really realize they had been missing until much later. if the obvious, constant things that we are fortunately accustomed to had been gone - the good cheer, great love, reminders of salvation - we would definitely have noticed a change in our time together.

still, next year maybe we'll get to hear the grown-up christmas list song.