"Christmas, children, is not a date. It is a state of mind."

-Mary Ellen Chase

We're in the middle of the hectic holiday season, trying desperately to figure out what to get our dearest, most presh beloved(s). We've got jingle bell songs on the radio, red and green in store windows (or as the French would say, les coulours verts et rouges sont dans les vitrines), candy canes on our sweaters, and Christmas on our minds.

Leading up to all of this were certain signs, things that nobody would take into consideration, but may

help somebody discern when they should break out the egg nog and the santa hats.

Ten Signs That Let You Know The Holidays Have Arrived

1) When you're pouring salt on your tomatoes, the sound of the salt inside the shaker reminds you of bells.

2) You can't pick up a red/green shirt without deciding that its color alone makes it look too Christmas-y.

3) You tell yourself you need to save money in order to be able to afford all the gifts you'd like.

4) You decide against buying something at that particular moment because you tell yourself that you can buy it later with the Christmas money you'll get.

5) You make a list of affordable gifts to get your friends. (The best gifts are those that are cheap, yet make it seem like you've actually spent well over what you'd actually ever spend.)

6) You make a list of friends for whom to get gifts for. (Subconciously you pray that the list will be long, but once you end at 3 or 4, you tell yourself that you're lucky and you get to save your money, but secretly you wish you had more close friends. Sucks.)

7) You yell at yourself for humming Christmas songs, telling yourself that pretty soon, they'll be all you'll hear.

8) You start making a wish list.

9) Black Friday has come and gone.

10) You flip your calendar to the next month. That next month just so happens to be December. (Although if it really does take you off guard that December follows November, then, well, I don't know what to tell you.)

Words you find can accurately describe/are synonymous with Christmas:

1) Shopping.

2) Presents

3) Santa

4) Sleigh Bells

5) Winter Wonderland

6) Frosty

7) Hannakuh

I could keep going, but I'll leave it at

that (slash I just couldn't really think of any more good ones).

Hmmm....this blog is getting to be pretty list-y. I think I might just continue on with that theme and create another list.

Our favorite classic holiday songs:

1) Santa Baby

2) It's Beginning To Look A Lot Like Christmas

3) All I Want For Christmas Is You

4) Feliz N

evidad

5) I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus

6) It's The Most Wonderful Time of the Year

7) Oh, Christmas Tree

8) Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree

9) Silver Bells

10) Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas

I think I have over-Christmased myself. I mean, Christ, I don't even celebrate it.

But to those of you who do,

Feliz Nevidad

Joyeux Noël

Nollaig Shona (Irish? I thought they spoke English....)

Sretan Božić (Croatian)

聖誕快樂

Selamat Hari Natal (Indonesian)

Срећан Божић (Serbian)

Mutlu Noeller (Turkish)

Frohe Weihnachten (German)

З Калядамі (Belarusian. Never heard of that one...)

Hyvää joulua (Finnish)

Anyways, I think you get it.