I apologize for the lateness of the hour. I slept in having gone to bed even later than the wee hours then I took my time savoring the morning. I finished the word puzzles and the crossword, always a good sign.

The morning is lovely though wintry cold. The high today will be 30°. I have no intention of facing the weather. I am actually going to clean starting with the living room. The dust balls have taken over, fodder for a Stephen King novel, okay maybe a short story.

The last day of school before vacation was fun. We colored, wandered the classroom and had a party. We all brought something. Chocolate chip cookies outnumbered all the rest. Sometimes they’d be sugar cookies. I’d grab one of those. They are Christmas to me. I think I ran home once we were dismissed.

I loved the living room with the lamps unlit and only the tree lights gleaming in the dark. They were always big, colored bulbs which got hot to the touch. On the ends of the branches were the bubble lights, my favorite lights. We’d sit and look at the tree right to left and left to right hoping to be the first to see the bubbles. I loved watching the red and green bubbles. My mother put her big glass ornaments on the tree. They were always safe on the top branches we couldn’t reach. When my mother gave us all some of the ornaments from our childhood trees, she gave each of us a big ornament. I always put mine on a top branch.

We had turkey for Christmas dinner, almost a repeat Thanksgiving. I never minded as I liked turkey and all the turkey dishes which came after, especially open face turkey sandwiches on bread, toast I think, covered in gravy with a side of cranberry sauce. My father always picked the turkey clean so my mother could make turkey salad and turkey soup.

My mother always put a few wrapped presents under the tree. We knew we’d open new pajamas on Christmas Eve. We didn’t have a choice. We needed to look good for pictures. My sister always tore a tiny hole in the wrapping paper of every present under the tree, all of our presents, not just hers. She had a talent. Just that little peek was enough for her to identify each present. Over time, she honed her craft. She could shake a present and know exactly what it was. She never missed.

Only two more days until Santa.

This entry was posted on December 22, 2025 at 1:44 pm and is filed under Musings. You can subscribe via RSS 2.0 feed to this post's comments.

Tags: Christmas, Christmas tree, family, holidays, life