Today is a dreary, rainy day but a warm one. When I woke up, the first thing in my head was my list and what I have left to do. The house is all decorated so I just have to finish the tree and make a batch of fudge. Yesterday, when I was bringing up tubs of house decorations, I brought up a tub filled with boxes. When I opened the tub to check the boxes, I found only empty boxes. I didn’t return the decorations to their boxes last year. I laughed. 

One of the ornaments for my tree is one of the special ornaments my mother insisted we not touch in case we broke them. The ornament is a big, colorful ball. I always put it toward the top of the tree just as my mother did. I’m very careful.

When I was a kid, school always dragged around Christmas time. We did a few Christmas activities like coloring nativity scenes and making cards for our parents which helped pass the time. My nativity scenes were heavy on the brown, but the hay was yellow and Mary always wore blue. I remember getting a box of hard candy from the nuns, I think, on the last day before vacation. The boxes were cardboard and had white strings to hold to carry the boxes. I still have a box, and I hang it on my scrub pine. 

I put my nativity set on the table in the living room. It is an old one very similar to the one we had when I as a kid. My sister has that now. They both have chalk figures. When I opened the box yesterday, I noticed the camel was missing its nose. I found the nose and glued it back on. I bought the set at a church fair even though a few key figures were missing. I had to buy some sheep and the Wise Men. I easily found two Wise Men, but Balthazar, the Black Wise Man, was difficult to find. I hunted on E-Bay and finally found one. When he arrived, I put him with his fellow travelers. This Balthazar is about half a height taller and a lot bigger than the other Wise Men. I never checked his size. I was just happy to find him. Every time I place Balthazar I laugh. 

Today is warm which is a welcome change from the freezing weather we’ve had all week. It was so cold the water in the bucket where the tree sat outside froze. Even the dog didn’t want to be outside for too long. 

The tree is up and the lights are on. The rest will happen today. I did notice the tree leans a bit in the stand. I tried to open the pedal on the stand and hold the tree, but it seemed risky. I need a bit of help. I’m hoping to see my neighbor get home from work so I can ask him to help. If not, my tree will lean just a bit. 

I was worried that my to do list was too long for me to get everything done, but I’m doing a great job. Besides decorating the tree, I need to shop for a few ingredients, wrap my sister’s presents and make cookies, but I have a whole week on the cookies. I’ll wrap her gifts tomorrow as I’ll be seeing her on Sunday for the play. I think I’ll end up with a few days of rest, of sitting in the living room looking at my tree, listening to Christmas carols and drinking egg nog out of my moose mug. 

When I was a kid, everything we did added to the excitement of Christmas. The two times a day delivery of mail meant receiving so many Christmas cards we could hang them on a string which stretched across the whole living room wall. My brother and I looked through the Sears catalog just about every afternoon. I would circle what I wanted from Santa, but I changed my mind so many times the pages were messy with circles crossed out and new ones added. We stenciled the picture window with outlines of Santa and Christmas trees. We made our own ornaments using construction paper and crayons. We’d also cut the construction paper into strips which we strung together to make a garland. We made paper mâché ornaments using flour glue, that gloppy paste made from flour, water and a touch of salt. I loved my fingers covered in stiff glue. My favorite of all the things we did was decorating cookies. We’d crowd around the kitchen table. My mother would put different colored frosting in bowls on the table. We each had a spreader. We liberally covered the cookies in icing. That didn’t matter. They still tasted delicious. 

Christmas is still filled with wonder for me. I stop to look at houses covered in lights. I smile every time I see my tree. In many ways I am still that kid who loved all of Christmas, and I’m glad for it.