Hot Fun in the Christmas? Time

I’ve wondered what it is like to celebrate Christmas in a warm climate. Outside of the few freakish times when the weather has been seasonable during all of December, only to have the temp spike into the sixties or seventies on December 24th or 25th, I have never come close to the experience. Until yesterday. I went shopping for some more ornamental cabbages for the front garden. To take the place of the dying petunias and the mums that didn’t survive their relocation around Labor Day. My usual cabbage stop was closed and I had to go the the Posh Nursery (whose cabbage prices were quite competitive) down the road. Our creepy hot weather has finally passed, but I’m reeling from a work week in which the heat was turned on and cooked most of us at a consistent temp of 88 degrees - about 22 degrees above my optimal working atmospheric temperature. We work in an old building, with a boiler that goes on and stays on for the winter, with details like temperature to be finessed over time. So, except for Church, I’m spending the week-end and any other off time in shorts, not matter how unappealing and mentally unbalanced it makes me look.

And talk about unbalanced. I breeze into the Posh Nursery and stop. Dead. Surrounded by Christmas trees, fully trimmed, Christmas home decor, Christmas accessories. (No music, thank heaven!) Something was out of place. But was it me? It’s a very warm day in October. I’m dressed appropriately - given my age, weight, metabolism, activity level and fear of heat. I should have been thinking about how the Chrsitmas peripherals are being hauled out earlier each year. But instead, it was, “This must be what it is like to live in Florida or Southern California.” Curiosity satisfied, I grabbed the ornamental kale and scooted home. (Full disclosure: I bought an ornament that I thought would be perfect for one of my girls. It was the practical thing to do. I know I should boycott the Christmas before HallowThanksgiving Movement, but I don’t have the purity of intention to will myself to track down this ornament when it is sold out in the weeks before Christmas. You know - Advent. When we’re strategizing the purchase and decoration of our Christmas tree. When most of the rest of the world is planning the dismantling of their trees.

First day of fall and there she goes back
(Bye bye bye bye - yeah)
Those summer days, those summer days...
Go back. Please. I can only wear flip-flops to work for so long.