Ways I can tell, without looking at a calendar, that it's almost Christmas

***A disclaimer before you read this post: I LOVE Christmas. This list might make it seem like I'm all jaded and bah-humbug-y, but that's not at all the case. Still, no one reads this blog for sweetness and light, so once again smarminess reigns on AMENMom. ***

1. It is a physical miracle to make it in and out of the toy section of Target unscathed.

2. I have to wear sunglasses to drive down my street at night or risk being blinded by "exciting" light displays.

3. Radio channels that usually play songs revolving around girls' bottoms and "hooking up" are suddenly airing music about a baby born to a virgin.

4. My newspaper is 4 times thicker due to store ads.

5. Sonic's cups have clever Christmas sayings on them.

6. People in charge at my children's schools and our church actually arrange for them to get on a stage with an audience in front of them and sing.

7. Catalogs virtually explode out of my mailbox daily.

8. Our laundry doubles. (I don't know how exactly this is connected to Christmas, but it has definitely happened.)

9. Matt is laid up for a couple of days after he strains his back pulling all of our decorations out of the attic.

10. I draw a complete blank when anyone asks me what I want for Christmas, then just blurt out the first thing I can think of that sounds remotely normal. This usually results in me getting 42 bottles of body wash for Christmas.

How do you know it's almost Christmas?