I can’t believe it! It’s actually snowing right now…and sticking! It hardly ever snows where I live and certainly never in November. This is so great. I just put up my Christmas tree yesterday and, between that and the snow, I am completely in the holiday spirit. I’ve been thinking of things that I could do to maintain this cheerful mood throughout the month of December. Aside from the obvious family get togethers, work parties and gift giving, my holiday traditions include watching the movie Elf and all of the old TV specials (Peanuts, Rudolph, Grinch), going somewhere fancy for a holiday cocktail with Robert, and reading/listening to Santaland Diaries, preferably while sipping on some sort of hot chocolate or mulled wine. Another big tradition for me is taking a day off of work for shopping, lunch and Christmas dinner planning with my mom and sister. We always have lots of fun. This year, my goals are to do a lot of baking and to try making homemade eggnog for the first time (the perilous alcohol and raw egg kind, not the teetotaling cooked custard variety). What things do you all do to get yourselves into the holiday spirit?