Until Stars Become Reindeers

Plastic pine trees are in high demand.

The mall now has snowflakes and pretty little lights and red and green hanging from its roof.

Red sale signs now decorate the storefronts.

And when you look carefully, you can see the blurs on the frosty windows, left there by the little children of the house who had just left the window side to get some hot cocoa, counting the seconds until the first snowfall, all in sweet anticipation.

Today is the first day of December.

For some, it is the end of a whole year and is a chance to wrap things up; correct their mistakes, fulfill their last wishes.

For some, it is a long-awaited time to finally get out of this disaster of a year, start over; forget.

And for some, like us, it is nothing but a month of stress, challenges and friends, thankfully cut short with a "winter break", concluded by, first Christmas, then new year's eve, only to be followed by more work and more stress.

But there is something about the newly constructed Christmas tree still missing some of its ornaments and the hats people are just starting to wear that brings warmness to my heart and fills it with happiness and expectation. I know that all of this fuss is about pushing people to consume more, in the end, only two days have passed since "Black Friday", a day especially devoted to turning people into raged consumerists who will stop at nothing to get that paper shredder which is on 60 % discount (!). Still, something about the "xmas" songs on the radio and the slightly chilly air makes me feel warm and fuzzy inside - now and until the stars hidden behind the gray clouds turn into reindeers.