Weekend nearly here

And none too soon.

I do still have lots of grading to do...graded a gen bio exam last night, plus seven more of the GIS papers (I have six to go, by my count, now.)

I also need to tweak the take-home exam for Biostats and get that ready to go - I need to hand it out Monday after break.

I'm hoping I can get that done today. I don't know that I will, or I don't know whether I'll just go into shut-down mode (it happens with grading - you get to the point where you Just. Can't. Do. Any. More.)

My other plans for the weekend are to spiff the house up a little, and to decorate for Christmas.

I know it's still early by most people's standards. But I'm not going to be here next weekend, and then after that, it's a few days of full-tilt boogie until the end of the semester, and by the time I think I'd have time after that, it would be so late as to seem pointless. I know some people DON'T decorate, especially when they're going to travel to be with family, but I think not decorating would make me sad.

It's funny when you think of it, the difference between Advent and "the Christmas Season." I wonder how people who are more strictly observant than I am do it. I was always taught in church that Advent was a time of contemplation and reflection - one minister referred to it as a "mini-Lent," where you examine your heart and soul and do some spiritual housecleaning, to make things ready for the birth of the Babe. (I wonder now if the tradition - which my father's parents followed - of not putting up the tree until December 24 was partly a holdover of that. Oh, I'm sure there was also partly the practical concern of "real" tree + candles - you want the tree to be as fresh as possible if you're going to use candles. No, his family didn't, but for some years my mother's family did).

I suspect - though I don't know for sure - there were probably fast-days in the past, and other days when you didn't participate in festivities. And I wonder how that would fly in the world of Christmas parties and shopping and all of that.

(I would observe somewhat flippantly that for me, going to the mall on Black Friday would be a major penance. Though it wouldn't be one that would be good for me in any kind of purification sense; it would make me angry and hate people and destroy some of my goodwill. Which is why I tend to avoid the malls this time of year and do my shopping online/from catalogs or through small local businesses: there's not the same level of craziness.

I also stay away from the malls and such because I like to hang on to my belief - which I know, you can probably produce many bits of data to show it is untrue - that people are nicer during this time of year and more generous. In the experience I've seen, if food banks are going to be anywhere near fully stocked, it's more likely this time of year. And lots of people throw money in the Salvation Army kettles. (I do when I see one. Even if I only have a few quarters at the bottom of my purse that I can grab quickly. I do it mainly for myself, actually: partly as a "thank You that I have enough money to spare that I can do this" and also partly to a reminder to myself that (a) however much I may worry about getting the bills paid, I can always get them paid and (b) there are a lot of things I want but don't need, but nothing I need that I don't have.)

At any rate: I really want to shift over to Holiday Mode, at least part time. Getting the house decorated is part of that. (And Sunday after church, we decorate the church). And maybe, if I'm fortunate, I can finish the gift mitts this weekend, which will mean all my Christmas gift-knitting is done and I can think about things like finishing up the socks on the needles, or going back to working on Potter, or maybe starting what I now think of at the Miss Marple Shawl.)