I’m sure you sniggered a little reading those words from me. ‘Cause of COURSE I know it. I know everything. That’s why y’all love me. 

But no. I’m asking you, how do YOU know? 

“How do I know what?” you ask.

Are you confused yet? Or just tired of me? I’ve not written in awhile and I feel like driving you just a little crazy before I get down to it. I’m not serving up meat and potatoes right off the bat! You gotta endure cocktail hour. Which, as we all know, is the best part. 

Ok I’ll stop. I get tired of hearing myself ramble, believe it or not. And I gotta go to bed eventually. 

How do you know it’s Christmas? Obviously not from the stores, who start placing their wares in June. (Looking at you, Hobby Lobby. But wait! I’m not complaining. I love Christmas. Drag out all the sparkles and glitter for as long as possible, I love it. Truly.) Do you know it by the weather getting that frosty edge of the morning? Or by the Christmas carols on the radio? Do you know it from all the tasty treats that start to become commonplace in the office? Maybe from well wishes coming to your mailbox? 

I’ll tell you how I know. How I’ve always known, apart from looking at a calendar or judging by the weather. This is how.

And this: 

These have set on my work momma’s workspace for as long as I can remember. Robin isn’t one to rush the season, but of course she loves Christmas as well as any Southern Baptist. She’s had these two little trinkets for many moons, long before I came to work for the Co-op at the start of the millennium. They’re tiny, just a few inches tall, and she always unpacks them from her drawer shortly after Thanksgiving and displays them either on her shelf, or, as pictured, in her window. Every time I went to the office I would check to see if they were out yet. And eventually, they would be. “Yay! It’s finally Christmas!”

 No matter that I had been decorating the store for weeks. It was NOW Christmas.

And so, just before Thanksgiving this year, I was in a Hallmark store and came upon what would become my own tiny Nativity. And no tiny office Nativity is complete without a tiny crystal tree, so I hopped over to Amazon to get one of those, as well. 

Get your own here: https://www.hallmark.com/gifts/home-decor/figurines/holy-family-mini-figurine-12886092.html

I hope those links work. You know how I struggle. And WordPress has, of course, changed everything since I last used the link button. And it won’t let me change the text that you click on to say something normal so you’ll just have to trust me that they’re legit. Here is the one for the tree: https://amzn.to/2SiMOpQ

WordPress is a real pain in my ass. I would never, nor have I ever, recommended them to people who ask me about blogging. What I generally say is, “Don’t do it!!! It’s expensive as hell, and just something else to keep up with! I’ve never made a DIME and I can still barely just get a blog posted.” 

So here I am trying to write about Christmas and the birth of our Saviour and I’m off on a tirade about the perils of blogging. 

Anyway. So it had been Christmas in my office for a few days when I thought, “What the heck was I thinking? I didn’t get Robin this little Nativity? She would absolutely LOVE it! It’s PERFECT for her and would fit right in with her tiny Christmas collection. As luck would have it, I was going back to the mall that very day and went to get her one. They were sold out, as my luck would truly have it. 

Not to fear, there’s this great thing called the internet where anything you could possibly hope for can be delivered directly to your doorstep. Magically, though, another mall in my area had the little figurine in stock so I just made a trip over there to get it. Of course I called first. I’m no dummy. I worked retail for eons, computers can’t count. As an added bonus, I got a slice of cookie cake while in the area. 

Sorry, I bit his head off before I took a picture. His eyes were a little wonky, anyway. But I’m not complaining. Sweet girl at the Cookie Cake Factory got him out of the back for me because all they had on display were some REALLY GREEN Christmas trees and REALLY RED Santas, both of which would make my stomach REALLY ANGRY with me. And let’s face it, I put it through enough between Margarita Mondays, Taco Tuesdays, and the rest of the week’s various indulgences.

Robin was thrilled with her newest addition when I presented it to her the following morning. It made my heart happy to contribute. 

And so it was Christmas.