Just A Heads Up

Christmas is coming.

I know that you knew that.

What you might not know is that all the Christmas commercials are on T.V.

Well, I expect you also knew that.

What you really might not know, is that I am, this year, being adversely affected by them.

Not adversely affected in a Scroogey-Mrs. Grumpy Pants sort of way, but affected in a "Oh-my-goodness-here-I-go-I'm going to cry again" type of way.

It's not just television commercials; radio ads, random magazine covers in check-out lines, rogue thoughts throughout the day, Skyping from Oxford, Facetime-ing from Wisconson, my husband stroking my granddaughter's cheek on the computer screen...

Especially that last one.

I can't even write that down without getting all weepy eyed.

I am an intelligent woman, and I'm pretty sure it's just the fallout of being a family in transition, but it does make going into this most festive of seasons a little difficult.

Therefore the "Heads Up".

I'm not overtly saddened by it all, and I'm not going to blubber my way through Christmas (I hope!), but I may, at seemingly random, odd times, get glazed teary eyes. You may notice me wiping away some leakage. I may have a melancholic, half-there look on my face.

And I'm not apologizing.

Just letting you know that I was probably thinking of a homesick girl in England or a lonely girl in the States or how big the table will seem and how empty the beds.

I know in my head that these separation wounds are ones that time may or may not heal; they may or may not get  a little numb and easier to bear. It could become "out of sight, out of mind" or it could be that "absence makes the heart grow fonder" and ache even more.

We'll see.

But it has the potential to be a Christmas that's a bit too quiet.

So, yeah.

Just a little heads up there.