A Christmas Confession

Hello, my name is Lori, and I'm a Christmas-aholic... I love Christmas. And I don't mean in the way everyone else does, in more of an obsessive way - just ask my family. I start listening to Christmas music, oh, usually sometime in July or August. And I consider Labor Day to be the official start of the holiday season. Other shoppers get upset if Christmas decorations are out in the stores before Thanksgiving, I get upset if they're not right up there with the jack-o'lanterns at Halloween.

As far as my own decorations, I have a Santa collection, a snowman collection, a Christmas mouse collection with enough mice to fill a china cabinet as well as decorate an entire tree of their own, enough regular ornaments to fill up my big tree (this year I've expanded to hanging 30 or so on some garland strung around a doorway), of course a nativity scene that I'm hoping makes it through the filming of "Attack of the Giant Kittycat", not to mention the yard stuff, i.e., 12 foot Santa. At one time, we had seven Christmas trees in our attic.

I've always been this way. It's never taken much more than a little sprig of red and green plastic holly or strains of Peanuts characters shouting "Merry Christmas Charlie Brown!" to set me to humming "Hark the Herald Angels Sing". One of my earliest memories is visiting the Burns Fantasy of Lights display, when it was still on the Burns property. And of course I still have to visit it every year, and my favorites will always be the bubble-blowing robot and the ferris wheel with Snow White and the Dwarfs.

My obsession spills over into my personal life and relationships. My birthday is on December 21st. Most people say "oh, what a terrible time for a birthday!" but I don't agree.... it's the BEST time for a birthday! Who wouldn't want a birthday during such a festive season? And to top it off, my entire family's birthdays are in December! Mike - 10th, Ryan - 6th, Becca - 2nd... Oh, and by the way... Ryan shares a birthday with St. Nicholas, and Becca's middle name is Noelle.... I just can't help myself.

So yes, I'm a Christmas-aholic. You may think I need some sort of 12-Step Program or an intervention with my friends around saying "Lori, just put down the candy cane and step away from Santa's lap", but I disagree. For you Scrooges out there, I'll say a Christmas prayer for three ghosts to come and visit you in the night and bring you some holiday spirit. And to those of you who are like me - Be brave, come out of the closet with all the wrapping paper, come over and have some cider with me... we'll sing some carols and bake some cookies, and look for Rudolph's red nose streaking across the sky on Christmas Eve....