Christmas in July

Christmas in July, like half-birthdays, is one of those lovely concepts that you hear about all the time but never actually put into practice; well, that’s what I thought until this year. This year my mom threw me a simple yet wonderful ‘Christmas in July’ filled with a day devoted to the traditional holiday movies, food, and presents. Since I won’t be home for my favorite holiday season this year, we celebrated with palm trees and the pleasant Florida heat to get us in the holiday spirit.

Last month, I read The Catcher in the Rye, which until then, was a book that I had absolutely no interest in ever reading. Due to my student, part-time job income, I went to the bookstore looking for a couple cheap books that would help curb my boredom for the summer. In the sale section, along with a variety of other classic novels, sat the Catcher in the Rye; I’ll admit I have a really hard time passing up any kind of sales in bookstores. Anyway, I think that timing is a key factor in life and this book, I think, embodies that theme throughout. Not only was this book an unexpected similarity in my current life, since I’m in a transition faze from just graduating from college, working at a part-time job, and preparing to take the first steps into adulthood by moving overseas and teaching- inevitably being forced to grow up- it also made me think about all blessings in my life.

Even though Christmas always seems to be a painfully long time to wait each year, I personally like it being at the end. At the end, we are able to look at everything as a whole, instead of just individual parts. We are able to count all our blessings, see growth from one thing to the next, and reach the point of giving that makes Christmas so special. Even though we did it a little backwards this year, I can’t wait to see where I’ll be in the next 6 months.

  P.S. I still really, really liked celebrating Christmas early this year. Thanks mom!