Christmas in July

Within the last few weeks I have received many Christmas in July ads in my in box. For the most part I have banished these ads to the delete bin but there were a few that I opened when I had a few minutes and decided to browse. Though I know that to most July is the absolute last month that one would be thinking of Christmas, there is something about the earliness that intrigued me. Now I am no stranger to starting my Christmas shopping( for the next year) on December 26th but I buy a few things , pack them away and by February, I am done until September. I always start my official Christmas shopping in September as that is when the kids have traditionally gone back to school. This insures that I have ample time to spend deciding what to buy and then I have traditionally put it all on lay a way so that I can make low monthly payments and best of all store it there until the week before Christmas. This plan has worked for me for all twenty years of my married life. Now however, lay a way is becoming a thing of the past. The stores say that most people prefer to use credit cards anyway. Besides the stores are fed of with people rushing in on Black Friday, putting 20 TVs and computers in lay a way( preventing others from getting the deals) and then canceling the lay a way ( who knew that they wouldn't have the $10,000 that they don't have now in a month )This leaves the store with an abundance of items that they must mark down the price and lose money on since everyone has already completed their shopping. Anyway I understand the situation, I really do but still what about people like me who use lay a way properly? Oh well, no sense in fighting it. Anyway, I guess that now that lay a way has died, more people are shopping in July, so I tried to conform. I looked at a few sites and even ordered a few Christmas related items and a gift or two. Still the feeling just isn't there. Perhaps I should stick with it and get the urge to put up a tree in September but I think I will just wait it out until September.After all last year Mike and I decided that the years of our children opening twenty five plus packages each was over and that we would buy each of them one or two bigger ticket items instead. This should make it easier to store not to mention that they would rather have a lap top than an etch a sketch and twenty little things anyway. It's new territory but I'll get through it ! Now should I order the fleece pajamas or the flannel ? It's so hot right now, who can imagine wearing either ? Oh Diane, there is no hope for you, is there ? Sigh..........................