Scrooge Days

So I've been less than enthusiastic about the holidays this season, though I am beginning to slowly get more into the festive atmosphere...I even have found myself humming the occasional carol. But, I think it's also just that three month mark coupled with the sense of loneliness that we can't help but feel when we know we'll be away from people we love on a day filled with memories. So here is my sappy post (really, my apologies, I try to only do this once in a blue moon, which is fitting since we'll have one of those on Dec. 31st)...

While my coworkers are gathering lights and decorations and small trees for their rooms, I have been basically pretending that no special days have passed, nor will they, while I am here in Korea. I've been telling myself that if I don't think about the holidays, then they will just go by like any other day, and I won't spend time thinking about the traditions going on without me, or the excitement of seeing people and sharing gifts and meals, etc. But then, yesterday was my sister's birthday, and talking to her on the phone and hearing my nieces and nephew in the background made it all very real. I will not be seeing them in a week, or hear my niece reading a book to me for the first time. I won't get to see how big the baby is, or get pictures to remember them at that age. When I called, one of them said, "Aunt Kendra sounds so far away..." and my sister said, "That's because she is." So now that the inevitable has happened, and I have been forced to think about all of those moments I will be missing, I suppose it's about time I rejoice in the holiday season and start really getting into the spirit of things, since my only other choice is to be a grinch, and no one wants that.