It's almost Thanksgiving.......WHAT????

I am totally convinced that something happens to time when you hit your 40's. It seems like I barely get my Christmas decorations boxed up and Thanksgiving is here again. I have a love/hate relationship with the holidays. For the most part, I think I could hide away in a mountain cabin from mid November to New Years' Eve. While I can't really pinpoint the time that I started feeling this way, I think it would probably be my early 30's. I've always had those grand illusions that the holidays should be like a Norman Rockwell picture.......oddly enough, it never turns out like that. When our kids were small, it was fun to do Christmas with them. It took very little to make them happy. We were limited in the funds department, so that dictated simplicity. Somewhere along the way we've given way too much emphasis on gift giving and running here and there. Last year the holidays went fairly well, but I realized a couple of weeks after New Year's that I had truly missed the whole meaning of Christmas. I honestly don't remember giving Christ much thought at all. I got the gift buying done, the groceries bought, the decorating done, I attended all the obligated events...but when all was said and done, I really forgot the true meaning of Christmas. While, I take full responsibility for my lack of acknowledging that Christmas is Christ's birthday, not mine........it doesn't help that all this Christmas hullabaloo starts before the Halloween candy is gone. Thanksgiving doesn't even get it's day.......what with all the "black Friday" beginning at midnight stuff. I did notice over two weeks ago that the "harvest" decor has been relegated to a small corner of shelving at the local DG one aisle down from the 50% off halloween candy, while there is shelf after shelf of Christmas stuff. I am already feeling that dread of the weeks to come. All that trying to buy stuff for people who don't need anything or even particularly want anything ( anything that's within our budget anyway)......all the trying to figure out the "holiday" schedules and places to be.... While I love many aspects of the holidays,(mostly music and movies) I am always so happy when it's all over for another year. My question is this........is this the way it should be? Shouldn't there be more to it than this? And....if I think it should be different, then what am I going to do about it? For one thing.........I refuse to start the Christmas season before we've celebrated Thanksgiving. For another thing, I am going to make it a point to set aside time every single day of the advent to focus on the one who's birthday it truly is. I am going to trust His guidance as to how to spend my time and money this Christmas. What about you? What will you do?