Joy

It's November.

Do you know what that means?

That's right! It's Month 2 of the Christmas Season!

(Just like Wal-Mart, I start celebrating Christmas on October 1.)

(I don't shop at Wal-Mart, but if I did I'm sure I would see Christmas stuff starting in October.)

(I'm not too good for Wal-Mart, I just don't happen to shop there.)

(I'm from Missouri so I can't hate the Wal-Marts, but, well, you know...)

(Target.)

Christmas is my favorite time of the year. It is full of tradition, good food, hanging out with people you love, yummy seasonal drinks at Starbucks, presents, festive decorations, many parties. It just is so wonderful.

To prove my point, I'm going to share with you a timeline of my 3-month long Christmas season and then you tell me it's not awesome.

Sept. 6: Seasonal drinks start at Starbucks with the release of the PSL, aka Pumpkin Spice Latte. I realize Christmas season is coming and I am stoked.

Oct 1: Christmas season starts. We start playing the "Pop/R&B Holidays" station on Pandora at work. Not all day every day, but it is enough to start getting pumped.

Oct. 31: Christmas Season Holiday #1: Halloween. I've always loved passing out candy on Halloween and you know I love me any chance to wear a ridiculous costume, but my love of Halloween has increased since moving to Williams. They do Halloween up right around here with kids of all ages running around town, people passing out candy everywhere, parties, haunted houses, etc. Things like Halloween are really made for small towns.

Nov. 1: Holiday Drinks start at Starbucks. Egg Nog Lattes are delicious though make me want to barf because they're so rich. And I get all my drinks in a festive red cup. My latte consumption increases 7-fold. (Seriously.)

Nov. 1: Half-price Halloween Candy. Enough said.

Nov. 8-13: I go to Boston to see my brother. This isn't really a tradition, but it is going to be awesome.

Nov. 13: Williams Community Thanksgiving Dinner at Lost Canyon. We invite the whole town to a pre-Thanksgiving dinner at Lost Canyon. Seriously about a quarter of the town comes. Again, small town awesomeness.

Nov. 24: Christmas Season Holiday #2: Thanksgiving, aka Friendsgiving. Pumpkin cinnamon rolls while watching the parade. Cooking all day. Building a fire and doing the full-page crossword. Watching all the Friends Thanksgiving Episodes. And, this year only, Friendsgiving will be taking place in a house in Zion with 15 of my closest friends from Williams. This is guaranteed to be awesome.

Nov. 27: Williams Christmas Parade and Tree Lighting. There are no words to describe this event. It is something you must just see.

Nov. 28: My brother's birthday. I always waste the good present on this one and then don't know what to get him for Christmas, but it always means that we're really close to being home and acting like kids for a couple weeks. Christmas is near.

Dec. 1-20: December Christmas Movie Marathon at the Chateau. We play a Christmas movie a night, starting with Elf and including some of my personal favorites: Home Alone 1 and 2, Muppet Christmas Carol, Love Actually, and Charlie Brown Christmas.

Dec. 3-6: Debbie and Kate Go to New York. I'm returning to the Big Apple with my roommate who has never been. So we get to go see all the Christmas cheer: Rockefeller Center, store windows, Christmas markets, Broadway shows. My heart is happy simply thinking about it.

Dec. 14: Lost Canyon Staff Christmas Party. Last year this took place at something called the Winchester Steakhouse and included a country legends cover band. I can only imagine what this year will entail. It is rare that our entire staff is forced to be in social setting together and it always equals something really great.

Dec. 15: Housekeeping Half Day at Lost Canyon. Every month, one department on camp gets our whole staff for a half day so that you can get big projects done. It also is required that you include an hour of fun and games so that we get to just hang out. My month is December. So, I get a ridiculous amount of work done and I get to force my friends to do things like play telephone charades or do karaoke. I think you can see why this is awesome.

Dec. 17: Home to Missouri. The festivities really kick into high gear. I will meet my brother at the airport and immediately start laughing, arguing, and all around being loud. It's really the truest form of me.

Dec. 18: Mizzou vs. William and Mary. My dad hasn't told me for sure that this is happening yet. (Hint, dad.) But I'm going to go ahead and put it on the calendar. We always do one family sporting event per Christmas. Some years it was Blues games, but my parents have a suite at Mizzou games now, so we've made the switch. It always includes dinner somewhere in Columbia and strong moments of reliving my college years.

Dec. 20 (approximate date): Christmas Decoration Night. We will start by decorating our tree. Not the pretty tree because my mom will already have that up, but our tree with all our childhood ornaments. So ugly, so nostalgic, so great. This night will also include the traditional Tichelkamp Nativity Challenge. Whoever gets baby Jesus wins. I have a lot of wins built up, so my record is fairly secure.

Dec. 23 (again, approximate because my family hasn't made the switch to Christmas excitement quite the way I have): Moon Family Christmas. My mom's extended family. Cousins, aunts, uncles, all at Grandma and Grandpa's house. Doesn't matter how old I get, this is still a joy. (Various other extended family Christmases may or may not be included around this time, but they are less consistent because "people have their own families now." Grandma Moon will never fail us single people.)

Entire duration of trip home: Lots of satellite TV, lots of games, lots of food, lots of snarkiness. (Probably some drama- can family time go without it?)

Dec. 24: Christmas Season Holiday #3: Mom's House Christmas. We will have our traditional Christmas dinner. The dishes were chosen when my brother and I were 5 and 6 and my mom asked us, "What do you want for Christmas dinner?" We chose what we thought were the dishes you would serve at a fancy dinner. Some additions/subtractions have been made over the years, but the core stays the same: steak, shrimp from a box, pink salad (jello concoction for those of you not from the Midwest), broccoli cheese casserole, assorted candy/cookie plate for dessert (baked on Christmas Decoration Night). Dinner is followed by presents and then playing one of the games that we received as a family from Santa.

Dec. 25: Christmas Season Holiday #4: Dad's House Christmas. We no longer do early morning wake up, present open because my oldest brother has kids that are old enough to care and they have to do Christmas at their house first. So we sleep in, wake up, put A Christmas Story on TBS on the TV where it will stay on all day, and make Christmas Day Lunch including ham, sweet potatoes, cheesy taters, green bean casserole, homemade bread, and red velvet cake and pecan pie for dessert. This is followed by presents which is followed by a wrapping paper war. We then hang out for about an hour while my brother puts his kids' presents together and we all play with them. We watch part of A Christmas Story and then shift into the traditional Family Game Night portion of the evening. This tends to include too much booze and someone crying, but we still love it and do it every year anyway. I can count on laughing real hard and eating a lot of chipped beef dip (sounds disgusting but is, in fact, delicious).

Dec. 31: Christmas Season Holiday #5: New Year's Eve. I normally spend this at home with my brother and sister, playing games, drinking wine, and being awesome. But I will be back in Willy for it this year. Not sure what will happen but I'm positive it will be fun and low-key which is always what I need after holiday nuttiness.

OK, did you read all of that? And can you still begrudge me for the 3-month celebration? It is totally deserved.

Happy Christmas Season, everyone!

Song of the Day: All I Want for Christmas is You by Mariah