The ringing of the bells has begun.

I am a fan of charity organizations, assuming they do what they say they will (and more when possible) to help those in need. And I am glad to see that people will spend many precious hours of their time doing whatever they can to help these organizations.

However, as I will go in and out of grocery stores for the next couple of months, I will hear the constant noise of bells.

Ringing doesn't seem the right word once they get on your nerves. Clanging is too loud of a word for them, but the meaning is much closer.

I have survived a couple of decades that included months of incessant ringing, though, and I will make it through this winter all the same. Indeed, I am really looking forward to this winter and this holiday season. By this time next week, I will have eaten a hearty and tremendous meal with a family I've come to care very much for in the past year (how can it only have been a year?!) an hour from here.

And I'm not sure just yet what my break in between semesters (including the most joyous of all holidays -- Christmas. Though argument could be made that Easter is at least as joyous, but Easter couldn't have happened without Christmas, and there was so much more to Christ's life than His death and ressurection. Those are, of course, exceedinly important. But His LIFE was also a tremendous gift to us, His life here on earth. The God that knows our sorrows and our joys -- that celebrates in a wedding as dear friend as well as Creator. The God that was tempted just as much as we could ever be -- perhaps more -- and yet stayed true to His Father. There is such wonder in knowing that our God, the very One that created us, lived among our kind -- Ate our bread, cried our tears, was truly one of us -- rather than an Apherdite disguised as an old woman until a more beautiful woman makes her jealous and she shows her true self to curse the human. Yes, Christmas is surely the most joyous holiday.) So, I'm not sure what my break will include just yet, but I know that it will include travelling some, seeing loved ones, hopefully visiting FL to reconnect with old friends and see how my niece has grown.

I am greatly looking forward to this winter.

And now that I've gotten some of my clothes out of the storage area of a friend's house (where most of my stuff still remains and will untill I move in somewhere that is my own or at least large enough to bring my belongings with me) I feel a lot more prepared for it. I have my long-sleeved shirts now, my leather bomber-style 80's jacket, my scarves, hats, ski gear. I even have the Christmas-time clothing that I enjoy just for goofballhead's sake.

So the bells will ring, and I'll enjoy this season all the same.