Creep

Holiday creep seems to arrive in stores earlier every year. It used to be that Christmas stuff wasn't out until the time around Thanksgiving, if not after it. Now we're lucky if retailers wait until Halloween has passed to prime the pump for it. If you pop into a grocery these days, you'll already see that merchants are ready to get us in the Christmas mindset.

The weather insists that it's time for it as well. We haven't exactly had much in the way of fall temperatures this year. Either it's been too warm or too cold. That in-between that defines autumn as a transitional season has been virtually skipped. The past two days my mom has e-mailed pictures of the snow received in northwest Indiana.

It was a nippy couple of days here, more like something from December than early November, so I feel like I'm adjusting more for the winter. I stopped at the grocery today and observed how it was decked out for the end of the year celebrations. Usually I would try to pay it as little attention, but for whatever reason, I'm ready to jumpstart the holidays this year.

Maybe it's a desire to put a lousy fall behind me. Maybe it's a sentimental streak coming to the fore. Maybe it's just a matter of the shorter days having a physiological effect. Whatever. Bring it on.

Of course, it's supposed to be in the sixties this upcoming week.