Where did you go, Fall?

Apparently, Fall has decided to skip Korea this year.  Already, I'm waking up to near-freezing temperatures, and needing to turn on the heater at school.  Somehow, my allergies still haven't acted up too badly, which leads me to believe that Fall got bored of Korea and moved on.

Somehow, I mentally seem to be in the same place.  I was walking with some friends last night, and everything just felt like Christmas.  We stopped and got some 호떡, a favorite cold-weather treat of mine, and the impression of that glittery season just hit me.  I went home and put on the Christmas music (for the second time this Fall), and started doing some cooking.  It made me really want to do Christmas up right this year, so I think I may go all-out.  We'll see what the actual season brings with it, but, frankly, I'd be quite content to skip straight to December, at this point.

I know, I know, that desire means that I would have to skip over Thanksgiving, that favorite of favorites, but the thought of spending another one apart from my family brings a lump to my throat and stinging tears to my heater-dried eyes.  Whereas most of you would lament spending Christmas alone, I don't think that I will (although, that's just a conjecture, as I've yet to spend it without family).  It's always been Thanksgiving that's been cherished, although I never realized how much until last year.  The thought of not seeing the full extent of my mother's family at that time is gut-wrenching.  I'd much rather skip it all together than face it without them.

That's enough of that.  I'll not think on those thoughts any longer in this post.  I'll continue to focus on my desire to revive the Royster-family infamous Christmas party.  I made a most excellent cheese ball last night, and I have my mom's excellent cookie recipes to fall back on (although, there's a key ingredient in her chocolate-chip cookies that would probably be hard to find...), so, while I don't think it would be anywhere near the scale of what she did, even if I invited everyone I'd ever met in Korea, I think it will end up being entirely appropriate for my current level of Christmas Party mastery.

So, that's my plan:  December 22, 2012 (I know it's not the second Saturday of December, as per tradition, but I have to teach on every Saturday before then)... The Christmas Party will live again!