in the spirit

I'm currently listening to some Christmas music (did you hear about the free! Holiday Sampler on iTunes? If not, now you have: go download it immediately.) and baking Christmas cookies, getting ready to wrap Christmas presents. I can't believe Christmas is next week. NEXT. WEEK. Where did 2009 go? So much happened and yet I still feel like it all just rushed past me like the streets rush past the window of the el. (See what I did there? CHICAGO REFERENCE!)

The hubs and I are doing the Christmas gauntlet yet again (7 days, 5 cities, 3 Christmases) despite swearing up and down last year was the last time. I don't know what to say about it except that, while I'm annoyed about driving all over God's creation, I'm also glad to have so many people worth going to see and who will be happy to have me. It's cases like this where I'm tempted to say "it is what it is" but when other people say that, I get irritated because, seriously, what does that even MEAN? In what way is that ever a valuable thing to say? So anyway, I will refrain from saying it myself.

It's been cold in Chicago, but not cold-cold, so I feel pretty lucky there. I'm just bracing myself for the onslaught of inhuman, unbelievable cold-cold. The city is still a bit overwhelming, but every time I start to feel like maybe we made a big mistake and I ought to just run back to mid-size cities for the rest of my life, something happens to make me really glad we're here.

I mean, really, what's not to love?