“Christmas isn’t a season. It’s a feeling.”
Right now it is 30˚. The high will be 35˚. The sky is beautiful like the icy, deep blue from a Crayola box. The wind is blowing hard enough to whip the top branches back and forth. They look like one of those sky dancers in front of a car lot. I have no errands today. I have the laundry to do, the dreaded laundry.
When I was a kid, the only Christmas books we had were The Night Before Christmas and A Christmas Carol which I read every year when I was old enough to read it. That’s probably why I can watch all the Christmas Carol movies over and over every year. My favorite scene is when Scrooge wakes up and finds out it is still Christmas morning. He dances and sings, sort of, “I am as light as a feather, I am as happy as an angel, I am as merry as a schoolboy. I am as giddy as a drunken man.” One year my mother, sister and I went to Boston to see A Christmas Carol. The theater was filled. We had great seats close to the front. Just as Scrooge began his dancing the fire alarm went off. We all sort just looked around then a voice told us to go out the nearest exit. We did. There was no fire. Worse, we never did get to see the happy Scrooge and Tim with his, “God bless us everyone.”
Yesterday I got home when it was dark so I got to see my house lights in all their glory. I was amazed. I think because the houses around me are dark, mine look so much brighter. They light up the night and this whole end of the street.
Im going to go through a few boxes of Christmas stuff. I’ll be down the cellar anyway with the laundry. I’m thinking finding Christmas treasures will make doing the laundry festive in some weird way.
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keepthecoffeecoming.blog 
December 18, 2018 at 12:45 pm
Just below 32 all day here but we did get a thin layer of new snow during the night so it looked rather pretty when I drove to work.
I don’t think we had a single Christmas book in our home when I grew up, not even as a reader’s digest. We had all kinds of classics but nothing about Christmas oddly enough. To be honest I don’t think I knew that A Christmas Carol existed until rather late in school but then I read it.
Have a great day!
Christer.
December 18, 2018 at 6:29 pm
Christer,
It was freezing here all day mostly because of the wind. I left the house to go to my neighbor’s, and I froze. It will e like this for a few days.
No hope for snow to arrive here for Christmas. It will rain again. We have had just too much rain.
I just brought some of my Christmas books upstairs so I can put them about the house. Most of them are really, really old Golden books.
Have a great day!
December 18, 2018 at 3:17 pm
Hi Kat,
I’m not sure there is anything that makes doing the laundry seem more “festive”. 🙂
It got up to 30ºF today. Last night the wind came howling and whining around the house. This morning the grass was covered in tiny white snow balls. They looked like the small beads that stuffed toys are filled with. I googled it and learned it’s called graupel. Anyway, the wind is still howling. The sky is very blue and the sun is very bright. It’s also very cold. I’m not going anywhere.
Enjoy the evening.
December 18, 2018 at 6:38 pm
Hi Caryn,
I figure that’s why I used weird. Laundry and festive do seem discordant. What I did was carry Christmas stuff up every time I moved clothes to the dryer or washed another load. Now I’m tired.
I went down the street to my neighbor’s house in my car but still froze going and coming. We didn’t get anything resembling graupel. We actually had dry streets for the first time in a couple of days.
I still have boxes and boxes of decorations I never got to. I think next year I’ll hire my factotum to lift the boxes and stuff so I can get to the back.
Have a great day!
December 18, 2018 at 7:52 pm
Today was again partly sunny with a high in the low 60s. The weather prognosticators are forecasting rain for tomorrow and no absolutely no snow or freezing weather for Christmas.
We read both “A Christmas Carol” and “The Night Before Christmas” even though I’m Jewish. I don’t remember when Dr. Seuss published “The Grinch” but during my cynical teenage years I would have enjoyed it. 🙂 Afterall, I would have not had any simpathy or empathy for The Who.
I agree with you that Christmas is a feeling. Regardless of the religious aspect it’s a time of family gatherings, good cheer, good food and a good way to end a miserable year. 🙂 If we didn’t have Christmas we would have to invent it. The pagans had it right by celebrating during the shortest day of the year.
December 18, 2018 at 8:44 pm
Bob,
Today was really cold with a bitter wind. It was a stay home warm sort of day. We will have similar weather for a few days.
I also remember The Gift of the Magi by O’Henry. It was sad, but it was much more. I haven’t read A Christmas Carol in a while so maybe it is time again.
Christmas is a brightness in the dead of winter. Lights ward off the darkness. Christmas has, as you wrote, so many parts, and you can pick and choose the parts you want. Family tradition is a huge part of Christmas.
December 18, 2018 at 8:56 pm
I forgot about that one. I knew it was a Christmas story just don’t usually associate it.
December 18, 2018 at 9:02 pm
I don’t think many people remember it or even know it.
December 18, 2018 at 8:21 pm
[Referring to Caryn’s comment]
Graupel (German) is called graupel in English? That’s funny! I can’t even imagine how you pronounce.
December 18, 2018 at 8:52 pm
Birgit,
I didn’t know the word and had to look it up. I checked the pronunciation, and it was just about what I guessed it would be.