The grey day doesn’t phase me at all. My trees are lit. The chili pepper wreath, the painted gourd and the scallop shell lights are also lit. They are bright and warm and the rooms feel cozy in the light. Today is make a batch of cookies day, orange cookies. Of all my cookies, the orange ones were my mother’s favorite, and they are also my friend Clare’s favorite because they remind her of her mother’s orange cake for which the recipe was lost. I remember my mother hiding some of these cookies because they disappeared quickly when company came, and my mother wanted a stash.

I am not going anywhere today. I’m doing the laundry, making the cookies and wrapping gifts. I’ll watch Hallmark movies this afternoon and be wary of my sugar intake. This evening, in keeping with the spirit of the season, I’ll watch the premier of the Syfy movie Christmas Icetastrophe. The only description says,”Christmas turns deadly.”

It doesn’t matter how many times I’ve seen them. I still watch all the old Christmas movies. A Christmas Carol is my favorite dating all the way back to Seymour Hicks, the gruffest of Scrooges, but, as I’ve said many times, the 1951 Alastair Sim will always be my favorite. In The Bishop’s Wife Cary Grant plays Dudley the angel. One of my favorite scenes is when Dudley magically decorates the Christmas tree by just a wave of his arms.

It seems Christmas angels have odd names, not just Dudley but also Clarence and Gideon and probably more I’m forgetting. Gideon is the angel responsible in The Magic of Christmas, a movie I like though it isn’t on TV often. In the night scene, the street lights have almost an eerie glow. Snow is piled high along the sides of the roads. The roads still have a layer of snow. Their breaths can be seen as Ginny and Jack, the two main characters, talk. In that pivotal night scene is one my favorite sounds, the squeak of boot on snow as Jack takes a walk.

Okay, I admit a guilty pleasure, the 1997 horror movie Jack Frost. I first saw it one Christmas Eve while my mother and I were talking and laughing. We couldn’t believe it, but we got pulled in and watched the whole movie. Jack Frost is a serial killer on his way to be executed when his van crashes into a truck filled with genetic material. Jack mutates into a killer snowman seeking revenge on the sheriff who arrested him, the sheriff of Snowmonton. Residents of the town are killed in horrific Christmas themed ways. Spoiler Alert: a blow dryer plays a key role.