So here we are. American Thanksgiving finally come and gone. The Detroit Lions losing the traditional Thursday game and the Washington Football Team, led by the inspirational Alex Smith (if you don’t know, google it) sticking it to the hated Dallas Cowboys.

And here we are, caught up in the throes of lockdowns, resets (great or otherwise), circuit breakers, rollbacks, COVID resurgence, the Groundhog Day moments of watching Trump lose the election over and over again as his appeals get denied, the partisan sniping and mutually assured destruction that qualifies as political dialogue in late 2020 and general disagreeableness. When what we should really be doing is preparing for a holiday season that will be like no other.

Because I don’t know if you noticed, but it’s safe to say that we have finally hit the holiday season. I don’t know what gave it away – the endless deluge of Christmas ditties while standing uncommunicative in a mask in the grocery store check out line, the Valentine’s display at Costco, the absurd cold we’ve endured, the annual Hallmark channel assault of Christmas movies (24/7 baby! Never Kiss a Man in a Christmas Sweater!) or the lights and the trees that have sprung up on pretty much every house in the neighbourhood (including mine, where they never came down). Any one of those factors could be the giveaway.

At any rate, the Christmas and holiday season  is that time of year that always seems so far away until whammo, there it is – and we all come to the crushing realization that we haven’t even started shopping or otherwise getting ready for the festivities. Interestingly, one way of managing that crisis is to use a calendar, because that shows you how many days you have until you really need to hit the panic button. And as luck would have it, you can buy a calendar that actually does the counting down for you and rewards you with a daily treat of some kind for doing so! I am referring of course to Advent calendars. Look, I know the purpose of the Advent calendar isn’t to serve as a shopping guide. But given that you can now get a cannabis Advent calendar and that last year, I got a sock Advent calendar and now I can’t close my sock drawer, I think you should all cut me a little slack for appropriating Advent calendars for my own purposes.

So, where am I going with this and what does an weekly blog have to do with Advent calendars? Well I’m glad you asked.

All you need to do is click on the cheesy advent image below and the link will theoretically take you to my very own Crude Observations Advent calendar, complete with a treat, energy and otherwise for each day.

I will leave it up to you if you want to read it all at once or actually use it for the purpose it was intended. I am more of an immediate gratification kind of guy, those 24 chocolates for $2.99 calendars don’t stand a chance with me – so you can guess which course of action I would recommend…