Ho Ho Ho...Not!

It's the second day of November and I'm seriously not ready to start thinking about the upcoming holiday festivities. I've learned to accept the melding of the Thanksgiving/Christmas/Hanukkah/Kwanza holiday season, but as I sit here eating leftover Halloween candy (not one kid stopped by the house the other night), I have to get myself into a festive frame of mind for some related items I need to finish for work. If the people I'll be pitching this to are anything like me, they don't want to hear about getting ready for the holidays either.
While running errands this afternoon, I had to drive through our city's downtown harbor area and what appeared before my wondering eyes...Santa's house! The tradition in our town is a big Thanksgiving parade the weekend before Thanksgiving. It's a pretty big deal and brings in hundreds of people who line the main parade route. The big finish, bringing up the rear, is a firetruck with Santa and Mrs. Santa sitting up top. It's usually the same couple every year, although one year, the Mrs. was absent, not really sure why. Was she sick or mad at Santa?
Anyway, after the parade ends and the throng of attendees thinks it's time to wrap it up and head back to the suburbs, heading back up the one way street is a police escort taking Santa and the firetruck to his house so he can start setting the kiddies on his lap and listen to their Christmas wishes. I may be wrong, but it seems the past couple of years, that house of his has been erected earlier and earlier. It spends most of November empty so I can't understand what the rush is all about. It's not a terribly convoluted structure so I'm not sure why city officials feel the need to assemble at the start of November.
My bowl of Halloween candy is almost empty. I'm betting the CVS down the street has a whole rack of sale candy available...right next to the chocolate snowmen and Santa's decked in their red and green tin foil.
A little empty calorie therapy is just the ticket to get me through the next two months.