Yesterday, the snow was melting, and all I could hear was dripping. It was warm, in the mid 40’s. It felt like spring after all the freezing days in a row. My flannel shirt was enough. The dogs stayed out longer. Nala did zoomies. Henry watched. Today should be the same but probably without the zoomies.

Spiders’ webs crisscross the walls. I haven’t ever seen bigger webs in the house. They look like they belong somewhere scary and haunted, a place kids avoid by walking across the street. I have been wandering from room to room dispatching said webs with my long handled duster.

I made food gifts for my friends. My kitchen hasn’t been that busy in a few years. I filled gift bags with my English toffee, home-made vanilla, chocolate chip and peanut butter cookies. I even tucked in one of those John Hancock Christmas Carol books we all remember. I bought them on e-bay.

I can close my eyes and see the living room in the house where I lived the longest growing up. It wasn’t a big living room. One wall was a picture window with smaller windows on each side. The other long wall was where the couch sat. The TV was in the corner of the room. It was in a big cabinet far too big for the small TV. Every Christmas we moved the TV so the tree could sit in that corner. On the wall behind the couch, Christmas cards were displayed on a string which stretched from one side of the wall to the other. A desk was right by the front door. Beside the desk was a closet. My father always hung his top coat there and put his fedora on the shelf. Sometimes we hung more Christmas cards on the wall behind the desk.

At Christmas time, on the shelf of the picture window was always a candolier with five orange bulbs. The windows on each side held a candle, also with an orange bulb. That seemed the popular color. Our stockings were hung on a small bannister near the bottom of the stairs. The living room was the only room decorated for Christmas.

Every morning we’d open the advent calendar. I remember the excitement mounting day to day as we got closer to Christmas. It made us almost giggly.

This entry was posted on December 18, 2025 at 10:39 am and is filed under Musings. You can subscribe via RSS 2.0 feed to this post's comments. Both comments and pings are currently closed.