Getting that holiday feeling

Certainly I don't want to give Thanksgiving short shrift. It's one of my favorite holidays, redolent with soft loving memories, long enough to really feel like time off, early enough in the season to be likely to have good weather and plenty of More Holiday Fun still up ahead.  Yup. I heart me some Thanksgiving. LD will be here to share it with us and so will H's girls. And best of all - I will have completed all my deadline driven, task oriented, worry creating, activities at work. I will be able to kick back and coast on through the next few weeks.

And just knowing that has me thinking about the light show at the Lewis Ginter Botanical Gardens. We went there in 2007 on a bleak cold Friday before Christmas. We were with a small gathering of friends with whom we traipsed through frosty air, singing carols and giggling with excitement at all the beautiful lights. It was one of the sweetest holiday festivals I'd ever had. We've repeated it since then and last year expanded the group to include my sister and her family. I can pretty much guarantee that if you were ever lacking that holiday spark, this would be the place to kindle it.

This year I am hoping to talk some of my Other Wonderful Richmond Cousins into joining us there again. If the whole family can't come, I do intend to kidnap a certain special someone and take her with us.

I never feel like too much is made of the Christmas season. If decorations are out too soon, I just don't look at them. I like to listen to audio books in the car so I don't get overdosed on Christmas music. I like to Make Plans - so thinking about holiday things now feels very much LikeTheQueen. It feels good.

I promise to be circumspect here - to refrain from overdosing my readers with Happy Holiday Cheer - but today I am smiling, thinking about the wonderful light show at Ginter Park Botanical Gardens. Happy Hump Day to you.