consumerism at it's finest

i drove home again today. which inevitably meant that i had lots of time (6 hours to be exact) by myself to think about this, that, and the other thing. i won't bore you with all the details. but the thing that did stick out the most on my mind was why i was headed home. in case you hadn't noticed yet, it's almost christmas time. and i started wondering, "why am i not as excited about christmas as i was 10 years ago?" i mean, i used to start plotting out what i wanted and started counting down about a month or so in advance. now my mom has to pry gift ideas out of me. i think it's because i've gotten sick of the ridiculous level of consumerism associated with christmas. everyone spends all their time talking about what they're getting everyone else, rather than talk about what christmas is really all about. the birth of jesus christ. now i say that from my soap box, all the while knowing that i have been guilty of the consumerism in the past, and that for the past few years, have dropped the consumerism, but remained apathetic in the sense that i don't make a big deal out of what christmas really is. i guess what i'm trying to say is that i'm guilty of being joyless. this time of the year should be at worst the second most joyful time of the year for me as a christian (easter probably would take number one). at this time of year, we remember that the God of the universe decided to humble himself by taking on the form of a man, and then choosing to be the weakest of all men, a baby. it just boggles my mind that he would do that for me. so, i guess for the next few days i'm going to focus on that, and really make that the point of my return home.