Merry Christmas!!

I completed my holiday shopping in a record (for me) two hours. Got my family and Dr. J's family knocked out. But I realized something. I miss the days when I could just say Merry Christmas without batting an eye. Now I gotta think, should I send so-and-so a Merry Christmas or a Happy Holiday or a Season's Greetings card. Maybe that's why I didn't send cards out this year. Everything has gotten too doggone complicated. I'm not nostalgic about many things in the past (after all I'm an 80s baby and goodness knows we all barely made it out of that decade in one piece), but I do miss a good ol' Merry Christmas. Just Merry Christmas. Do the Salvation Army bell ringers even say Merry Christmas anymore?? Such a rip-off. And don't get me started on this whole, "let's not have church on Christmas Sunday" trend! Hello people! Next you gonna tell me that there's no church on Easter Sunday--just ludicrous I tell ya!! If that's the case we might as well go back to work on Christmas, I'll even teach a class, and the post office can bring me my durn mail while I'm at work. Geez. This is Christmas, not Columbus Day--now that's a holiday we can "contemplate" at home while watching a video--did u hear about the church that is sending the congregation home with DVDs to watch on Christmas?? Sigh let me stop before I really go off. Please if you see me on the street--please say Merry Christmas, that would make my day.

In other much better and brighter news, I finished all those durn books. Last one I had to read was John Kerry's A Call to Service. Sigh. All of the books I read this week were very straightforward and quick. But I did read (and not grad school skim) read five books this week. That was some great mental exercise. I need to get on a book-a-day diet. I think I've been working so well this week, in part, because I've been reading a lot. Possible dissertation tip?: Put words in to get words out?? Hmmm...

I spent a couple hours tonight and just knocked out the rest of this genre section. Only took 778 words, some deleting and rewriting to polish that section off. It is now complete. I'm sure what I just wrote needs some proofing, but I'm not going to look at it tonight. I am off for Christmas. I'll give the whole thing a clean-up when I finish the concluding section after Christmas. Things are continuing to look up for this chapter being off my desk by the 28th!!

Merry Christmas to all and to all a goodnight!!