It is October 12th. Every year I always face this dilemma, and I foresee me always struggling with the desire for an extended Christmas season. So with Dean Martin's Silent Night on my Christmas Pandora station, I ask, is it too early? In my personal opinion, peppermint lattes taste better in July; jingle bells are a year-round instrument; it could snow every morning and just melt away by night time; and the gingerbread decorating club might as well have monthly meetings.

Not to drag this out too far, so I'll end after this last comment, I will never live down the belief that if Santa did exists, I would be his number one elf recruit.

El Conde Arnaldos

The strangest of adventures
That happen by the sea,
Befell to Lord Arnaldos
On the Evening of Saint John;
For he was out a-hunting—
A huntsman bold was he!—
When he beheld a little ship
And close to land was she.
Her cords were all of silver,
Her sails of cramasy;
And he who sailed the little ship
Was singing at the helm;
The waves stood still to hear him,
The wind was soft and low;
The fish who dwell in darkness
Ascended through the sea,
And all the birds in heaven
Flew down to his mast-tree.
Then spake the Lord Arnaldos,—
(Well shall you hear his words!)—
“Tell me, for God's sake, sailor,
What song may that song be?”
The sailor spake in answer,
And answer thus made he:
“I only tell the song to those
Who sail away with me.”

my claim to fame