I am still awake at 2:30. I’m not even tired. Today I made more cookies, snickerdoodles. The outsides of the cookies are brown and crisp and have a cinnamon taste. The insides are soft and taste of butter and sugar. They are wonderful cookies for Christmas time, for wintertime.

When I was a kid, my whole body shook with excitement on Christmas Eve. I wanted to go to bed when it got dark, too early my mother said. I remember sitting in my new pajamas reading A Christmas Carol in the living room by the lights of the tree. Finally I could go to bed. I didn’t fall asleep right away, but when I did fall asleep, I slept through the night into the morning, into Christmas.

I remember so many Christmas Eves when my mother and I were the only ones awake. She’d have an Irish coffee and I’d have coffee with Kahlua and Bailey’s and a bit of whipped cream on the top. Sometimes we watched a movie. I remember watching Jack Frost, a movie about a killer snowman. It was awful and sometimes oddly funny so we watched until the end. My favorite part of our Christmas Eve was when we’d open one present from each other, one perfect, special gift.

Tonight my friends and I will make our gingerbread houses. We each bought all sorts of candy to decorate our houses. I have Necco wafers, candy which looks like rocks and Lego block candy. My friend has spearmint leaves and more, but I somehow forgot what else she is bringing. Anyway, I’ll have us set up at the dining room table covered with a festive, vinyl cloth under our work spaces. They’ll be food: dips, meatballs, cheese and crackers. I love this tradition of ours.

Christmas Eve has always been the magical night. The sky is filled with stars, a blanket of stars. The air is clear and brisk. Christmas lights seem even brighter. I stay up late now.

Merry Christmas!

The day is lovely with a deep blue sky clear of any clouds. It is colder than it has been, 40˚ at best. Tonight will be in the 20’s, a winter’s night.

The cookie bake began yesterday and will continue today. The orange cookies are done. I made them last night. I’ll start with snickerdoodles today and move on to at least one more. I have a couple of choices. I’ll let you know when I’m done.

When I was a kid, my mother rationed the Christmas cookies so they’d be some left for Christmas. Mostly they were sugar cookies. We would have eaten them for breakfast if she’d have let us. Our defense? Anything goes at Christmas.

My sister greeted me this morning with, “Happy Christmas Eve Eve.” We only use that distinction for the 23rd. If not, we’d have an endless number of Happy Eve Eves.

Under my tree are wrapped Christmas presents from my sister and my friends Bill and Peg. If I were a kid again, I’d be sitting by the tree shaking each present to try and figure out what it is. Without squeezing the gifts, I know a couple. One is Starbuck’s coffee as I get some every year. They’ll also be a book and a calendar and some neat old stuff from Armadillo, a huge store with tables and tables of antiques. Moe finds the best stuff. She’s like my mother that way.

I don’t remember how old I was when clothes were welcomed as Christmas presents. When I was young, the only clothes were the new pajamas for Christmas Eve. All the rest were toys, games and books and in the big years maybe a sled or a bike. I do remember the outfit I mentioned earlier and one other as being Christmas favorites. The first, the skirt et al, was maybe when I was eleven or twelve. My second favorite outfit was when I was in high school. It was perfect. I got a pink Angora sweater and ski pants, which were slacks with loops on the bottoms to put over your feet so your pants wouldn’t ride up your legs from your boots. They were quite the fashion that year.

Now I am in my comfy clothes, perfect attire for cookie making and sipping eggnog dashed with Kahlua.