Elf yourself. Come on. You know you want to. Just do it.

Heh.

So...I'm just kind of wondering...what does the phrase "Elf Yourself" bring to mind?

Because maybe it's just me. No, actually, it probably is just me.

But seriously? Every time I hear those ads on TV, I giggle.

And I giggled even more when I discovered elfyourself.com and wasted a good 10 minutes uploading a pic of Abraham Lincoln and watching Abe the Elf disco and country dance.

Ah. Cheap thrills. (Yeah, I know the Elf picture is just horrible, but...I laughed.)

I can't decide whether the those ads are brilliant--since when have I ever thought about Office Max so much?--or just really silly. Either way, I find it amusing.

And I think I need all the amusement I can get this holiday season. The holidays are stressful enough--for real--but they seem almost impossible when you're grieving a loved one.

But we're soldiering on, decorating the tree, putting lights up, and braving the malls. Eeep. (I was at the mall last night and there were A Lot of people there. I don't think anyone told them there's a recession on, people.)

We're wearing lots of red, and wrapping presents, and I'm already gorging myself on things like eggnog ice cream (oddly, it's really good) and sweet potato pie. The waistbands of my pants are already complaining that this is going to be a loooong Christmas season.

Oh and we're doing this all to fun, festive Christmas music. I do so love Christmas music and I have different Christmas playlists for differents moods. You can't  power through wrapping presents with Stille Nacht, Heigile Nacht by Andrea Bocelli. You can't sit by the fire and enjoy <insert drink of choice here> while listening to little Michael sing about Mommy kissing Santa Clause.

Yeah, I guess you could say I was pretty particular about my Christmas music. Want a peak at some of my favorite holiday songs?

( Just a peak... )</div>