Tis The Season

However unbelievable it may seem, today is the first day of December, which means…yes, it’s the day after the new “Cyber Monday,” preceded by Black Friday, which came after Thanksgiving. While it may be the day bills or rent are due, to me today is the first day of Advent Season. And by Advent Season I mean literally opening the first door of my advent calendar.

This may appear to be quite silly to most people, but I love opening up that one door a day in December. It started as a family tradition, a small thing we would do before we went to school in the morning as a family and I can still remember the days when my little sister was too small to reach the calendar hung on a nail on our kitchen or garage doors and my dad would lift her up when it was her day and we’d search and search to see who could find that day fastest. Later, when we were older and wiser, we would jockey before the opening of the doors started and count back to see which of the first four days we wanted to take in order to get Christmas eve or the “big door,” etc. This may seem like a truly stupid family ritual, and writing it out, I completely believe that it was, but I loved it. I loved picking out the calendar (some were sparkly and full of glitter that spilled its golden flakes everywhere (no chocolate and a horrible mess) and others just had cool pictures.

Some years these have been hard to find (although I realize I could just make a cloth one of my own to have permanently and am considering it for next year, but I really love the cheesy ones with the little scene and slightly camoflauged numbers. Thank you, Harris Teeter grocery in D.C., which reminded me that this week was December and also, had an unusually lovely selection of calendars, all from Germany—so I know the chocolate behind each window is old and crusty—and for allowing me to start the countdown unto the day I get to see my family and native home again. Tonight’s poem is a dedication to this tradition I think I shall always carry with me.

I See It!
by Nicole Speulda

Behind the thin cardboard door
You offer a thin, stale
Milk chocolate wafer
I savor on my tongue,
despite the aftertaste.

My holiday Eucharist,
Communion for a pagan soul
Believing in the human spirit,
A faith in life beyond reason.

Day one in the name of the family,
Day two in the name of friends,
Day three for the holy season,
And the countdown begins...