Christmas Already???

Let me begin by saying that I love the idea of Christmas in July. Really, I do. And, I adore Christmas celebrations. Boy do I. Christmas parties, wrapping presents, spending time with friends and family, donning a Santa hat or the whole suit as the case may be(yeah, that's me last year at work in a Santa suit just being silly.). I am cuckoo for cocoa puffs about the whole shebang. I swear. But, I have one hard and fast rule when it comes to Christmas. I do not begin any planning of anything Christmas(with the notable exception of picking up gifts for friends and family which I sometimes do throughout the year especially when you find something that's just so perfect that you may never see it again like the ladybug vase on clearance for the ladybug lover in your life) until November 11th. That may seem like a pretty random date to those of you who don't know me well, but it will make perfect sense in a few minutes. My birthday is November 10th. My father's is the 12th and grandmother's also falls in November. For some reason, growing up a large portion of my friends were also November babies. I grew uncomfortably accustomed to having to share my birthday with others. On top of that since my birthday falls a little to close to Christmas for comfort, I have fallen victim to the this present is your Christmas/birthday present. That all stinks. I wanted my special day that was supposed to be all about me just as much as everyone else. So, I created my rule as an adult that there is no Christmas discussions until after my big day has passed. I also like celebrating all holidays. I look forward to Labor Day cookouts, Halloween Trick or Treaters and Thanksgiving gorging. As commercial industries keep pushing up the time when they bring out holiday ways earlier and earlier each year, this task becomes more difficult. Usually, I have come to expect to be annoyed around Halloween to start seeing the Christmas items hitting the shelfs. I was bewildered today when upon entering the Dollar Store searching for supplies for a bachelorette party project which I promise to make a tutorial for over the next few days to see Christmas items prominently displayed near the front of the store. I tried to avert my eyes and pretend I didn't see it, but alas it was too late. It's well over 90 degrees here. School has yet to start. I'm ready for some grilling. I'm simply not ready for summer to be over much less for Christmas to be here.