I've been feeling really strange lately.  Not sick, nor well; not sad, nor happy...  Everything just felt like a drag of what, in years past, I called "the holidays."  I think it was the fact that I had so many finals that didn't end till the week of Christmas, and then with puppies going home soon, etc, we haven't gotten much done.  The tree got put up Thanksgiving weekend, but a lot of the other decorations didn't come out of the boxes for another couple weeks.  Even then, the lights outside, the kids' tree, and the garland never got put up.  And the choir concert was scheduled on the night of the annual combined-YM/YW caroling, so that didn't happen either.
  Well, my parents knew that I was not very happy about that.  I mean, how could I be able to stand driving around the neighborhood when everyone else had gone all out?  So FINALLY Dad allowed us to put up some lights.
  And guess what?  It finally feels like the holiday season to me.