Every year the holiday rush seems to begin a bit earlier that before.
The stores are already displaying Christmas items right beside the Halloween decorations and it’s only October 13th! Christmas gift ideas are in the commercials on television.
It seemed pretty strange to wear shorts shopping and see Christmas decorations and gift items on display and already on sale! Don’t laugh. That actually happened during our ‘heat wave’ last week and Jack and I witnessed it at Sams.
And, every once in a while, while driving around the area, you might see some Christmas lights on display before anyone has had a chance to pick up a costume for youngsters to wear ‘trick or treating’ yet.
And no one is even discussing Thanksgiving, which is a wonderful family holiday coming up in just six short weeks.
Don’t get me wrong, I love the holidays. I don’t even mind seeing some early lights on the houses around the area, although Jack is a “Bah, humbug” kind of guy (or he pretends to be one).
We actually love the Christmas colors and always spend an evening the week before Christmas driving around the area to look at the Christmas lights. And I start planning for Christmas about now, although we won’t be sending packages out this year. As seniors on a very ‘fixed’ budget, we simply can’t afford it when the mailing costs more than the presents inside the packages – a problem we had last year.
I guess it will be cards and money for the ‘grands’ this year, and I’m sure they will love to get some folding ‘green’ or a gift card. We simply don’t pick out the same things they (the older grands) would love to get anymore…
The little ones, our eight great grands, are still fun and I might try and find some lightweight goodies to send anyway. Another solution is to order gifts and have them sent to those distant homes and wrapped there with a little help from Mom and Dad.
Anyway, I don’t want to think about Christmas yet. I want to cruise around the area to see the fall color display (I’m a dedicated ‘leaf peeper’ when this time of year rolls around) not Christmas lights!
The fall colors are getting pretty flashy in a few places and we have been waiting for the right time for our annual ‘fall color tour.’ Over the past few years, we have discovered that some of the best colors fall has to offer can be found within 20 to 50 miles of home! But I still would like to take a ride west to see the ‘Tunnel of Trees’ north of Harbor Springs when they are “in bloom.” We have tried that a few times over the years, but so far haven’t been able to get there at the right time although the drive up and back was pretty spectacular.
Anyway, if you like color touring a little closer to home, Jack and I discovered a beautiful fall location just a few miles from here. The picture was taken a couple of years ago just north of Talsma’s where we usually go when looking for flowers. It’s a narrow dirt road with trees making our own “tunnel of fall color.”
If you are a dedicated “leaf peeper,” you might want to check it out this week or next. You won’t be disappointed.