It's time

With Thanksgiving safely in our rear-view mirror, the time has come for me to give in. Time to resign myself to winter and all it entails.

The calendar insists it's only November 25. It says we're still almost a month short of the official start of winter.

We don't wait that long in Minnesota. The three inches of snow I discovered on the lawn this morning proved as much.

I'll accept it now. Thanksgiving marks my threshold for winter tolerance. Anything resembling that wretched season that happens before Thanksgiving is depressing. After Thanksgiving? Well, that's just our destiny here.

The day after Thanksgiving, with or without snow, also marks the official beginning of the Christmas season. At least in my mind.

The season began a month ago for retailers and certain radio stations that are intent on extending the front part of the season by as much as they think their audience can stomach.

Not me. I maintain a moratorium on the Christmas season that begins with the new year and continues until the day after Thanksgiving, much to some people's chagrin. I know, I'm a scrooge. Greatest Girlfriend Ever tells me as much when I bristle at anything Christmas before Thanksgiving.

It's not that I don't enjoy the Christmas season. I really do. So much so that it ranks as one of my favorite times of the year, despite the weather. But, as with just about everything else, I preach moderation. A month and a half of Christmas this and Christmas that is plenty.

And now, it's time.

So, to make it official for GGE: 'Tis the season. Knock yourself out.