we're trying here

So trying to feel Christmasy is much harded than I originally expected. No family events to make it feel like the holidays, barely any decorations (save for that wonderful tree laura and mom made for me), no cold rain, no warm wool coats with big scarves, no hot apple cider, no shopping and christmas carols everywhere, no city sidewalks, busy sidewalks, dressed in holiday style (they're busy yes, but not in that same way), no hope/dream of a white christmas (seriously tanned today while reading stuff i should know for meetings this week) and not many surprises and secrets being kept.
But we are all trying to make it festive, downloaded five cd's worth of christmas music (bing crosby, diana krall, mariah carey, kenny chesney and i'm ashamed to admit it - jessica simpson - it was a small file ok?), stuck the tree to the wall, listened to the aforementioned carols at work almost constantly and then at Kristy's pizza party, baked a cake for sinterklaas day for the boys, downloaded frosty the snowman, have white christmas which will watch soon and this evening we went to a candlelit carol service at the cathedral in town. that was really really nice, got to sing some carols and all that though i think that was the first church service i had been too in probably 8-10 years.....
anyways i hope the holidays are going a little better at home but i've gotta go get packed for the field tomorrow we're leaving at 630 and i'm not packed yet (it's 1106pm) and a bunch of the clothes need to be ironed pre-packing................