I try not to go near malls even during the off-season. This time of year they're maddening. My wife and I shopped in downtown Seattle last year, taking the bus from a parking spot on a nearby hill. In part to "help" the merchants who had been hurt by the WTO-related vandalisation. It was much nicer than any mall.

The kids love this time of year, and having 5 of them, we don't want to take that away.

Of course all the feasting and indulging is rather mitigated by the fact that we're fasting from Nov 15 through Christmas Eve (with a one-day exception for Thanksgiving). We try to get the tree as close to Christmas as possible (usually the weekend before), and keep it up through Twelfthnight.

Thus for us it's already Advent, so the "early" stuff isn't all that bothersome. Wish they could invent good-tasting soy milk, though.

My Christmas blues always came from wondering if my mom liked what I got her. But after a lot of counselling and some antidepressant therapy, that doesn't bug me as much any more.

Alex
O..O
=o=