Good MORNING!

Due to a massive oversight on my part, I’ve woken to a dry house this morning.

We. Have. No. Coffee.

Not a drop.

So I’m currently running off of a cold shower and pure giveaway adrenaline.

The Christmas spirit, I tell you – she’s potent.

So, without further ado, the winner is…

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Jeannine!

(Rafflecopter randomly chose a winner through Random.org.)

Congrats, Jeannine! You should be getting an email from me soon!

Now.

I feel like I need to clear something up. Sometimes — not all the time, but sometimes — I treat this blog like a punching bag for everything I feel is wrong with the world.

And the funny thing is, I’m not really like that in life.

Okay.

I lied.

I am like that in life, but I’m also very positive, too. I’m a Libra. I like balance and happiness and all of that.

So I’m following yesterday’s Scroogy post with 10 things I really love about this season. These are real things — not movie things like tinkling bells and sleigh rides. In no particular order:

• Christmas movies. I can’t get enough. From the awful Hallmark ones I can screen on Netflix to my Hollywood favorites like Home Alone and The Santa Clause, and of course classics like It’s A Wonderful Life and How the Grinch Stole Christmas, they never get old. They just don’t.
• Kids opening presents. As much as I might wax on about how bratty children can be, one of the greatest holiday sights to witness is a kid going ecstatic over a gift. At Justin’s family’s Christmas celebration, all of the kids — we’re talking like 30 of ’em — gather into one room and open the gifts one-at-a-time. Since the parents drew names, each only has one gift to open, and their reactions are always adorable. Soon kids are buzzing around the house in spankin’ new Spider Man pajamas and making me wish I were 8 again so I wouldn’t get weird looks if I joined in.
• Cookies. ‘Nuff said.
• Shiny, colorful, sparkly stuff. Christmas is really the only time of year when people can decorate their homes to look like a Lisa Frank trapper keeper exploded all over them. It’s fantastic.
• Travel. Even when it’s crowded and smelly and snowy and wet, I still love the travel.
• Calories don’t count at Christmas.
• Sweaters and hats and scarves and such. Even though I’m not a fan of cold weather, I love cold weather apparel. Except coats. So if I could run around in a hat, scarf, sweater and mittens and manage to stay warm, this really would be the perfect time of year.
• Shopping. I know. You would think I despise shopping with my rants against commercialism, but I don’t. In fact, I love it. But there are conditions: I never spend money we don’t have. I only buy things we really need or want. And if I find the perfect gift, all rules go out the window. There is no better feeling than finding a gift you know will be perfect for someone. (Conversely, I get frustrated very quickly if I can’t find a great gift. While I like shopping, I’m certainly not very good at it and lose patience quickly.)
• Mulled wine, hot cider, spiced eggnog, homemade hot chocolate. Cold weather drinks make the world go ’round.
• Family togetherness. While it can get expensive with the ticket buying and the mutt kenneling and the gift finding year after year, the result is always worth it. With the gathering of Justin’s family, things can get hectic. People get stressed. Siblings bicker. But also, they laugh. They play silly games. They take the time to be together in a digital age that makes it easy to forego physical contact. They give the best hugs. They tell the best stories.

While I sometimes wish we lived closer to the people we love, (especially if they lived somewhere awesome like Europe), there’s something special about gathering around the holidays and making up for lost time.

So there’s a little mush from me to you.

What’s your favorite thing about this season?