All I Want For Christmas is...Christmas?

I bought a shimmery, green, bow at Target yesterday and affixed it to the front door of my apartment and it still doesn't feel like Christmas-time, what do I do?

For the past several years it seems like the holidays get less and less climactic and now that I find myself in a place where I can walk around in a t-shirt dress all day in December how can I scrounge up some semblance of holiday spirit from within? I tried putting on my electric fireplace last night when I got home from dinner, poured myself a big glass of red wine and tried to get all cozy, but that's when I realized that I couldn't drink anymore, shouldn't have driven home because I had no recollection of my experience on the freeway (I think I may have said out loud, to my GPS, "Help, Emily*, just pray that you can get me home safely"), and that I wasn't cozy and Christmas-y, but drunk and on the verge of passing out. Sidebar: I only had four beers, over the course of three hours, so I should have been fine, I just...wasn't.

*My GPS is programmed with an Australian accent and her name is Emily. It's pretty rad.

Anyway, back to my point (I'm going to try to stick to some sort of format from now on, promise), I want it to feel like Holiday time!! I grew up celebrating Hannukah, as well as Christmas, and I'm not even so much as acknowledging the holiday by lighting candles this year. I said that I was going to make latkes, but my "nutritionist"(read: boyfriend) advised against it as I keep claiming that I'm trying to lose weight. So fried potatoes out of the picture, and menorah-less (and too broke to rationalize buying one) I don't know how I'm supposed to feel the spirit of my ancestors.

In the past I've been able to force myself into the holiday spirit by turning on the tv and indulging the endless barrage of cheesy holiday movies, but there's no cable in my sublet (I know). OR, or, baking a bunch of cookies. Or throwing my annual holiday party, with all of my friends coming over and dropping their snowy boots at the door. Or stepping outside into the cold and just simply feeling it. That just ain't gonna happen here. I also don't own any Christmas movies. I tried to buy Love Actually, or Elf, or SOMETHING yesterday at Target, but they were all sold out. I guess everyone out here has the same issues.

Now, if you'll excuse me, I have a date with an elliptical machine and later, Netflix.com.

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