Either it's because I've gotten older, or it's because I'm always busy around this time of year, or it's because I'm not living at home where my mom celebrates Christmas the moment Thanksgiving ends...I haven't been feeling festive these past few Christmasses.

Christmas is not a holiday in Japan either. Yes, we do celebrate it and there are people of the religions that celebrate it living in Japan. However, it's a whole big commercial thing and a lot of people tend to celebrate it on the 24th and not the 25th. So, by the time the 25th arrives, most people have already moved on.

So, how does one go about feeling festive when not very many people around them are doing festive things?

But the thing is, it's not about feeling festive on the day. Well, that IS a nice thing, too, but I think it's also about feeling festive leading up to the 25th.

This year, I got pneumonia in the beginning of December. Before that, my partner got a really bad cold. During all that stuff, we were also busy. Too busy to even realize that Christmas was approaching.

"Oh, it's already the 20th? That's five days until Christmas? What???"

Neither of us were feeling very festive on Christmas Eve either.

And so, come Christmas, it's hard to feel festive since we both are also still kind of sick (but much, much better and that's why I'm here writing this) and also still in the midst of being busy.

That's what's been going on.

Do you feel festive this year? How's everything going with you?