This morning is one of my favorite sort of mornings. When I let Henry out for the first time, I went on the deck. It is chilly, but the sort of chill which doesn’t hang around. I can feel a warmer day coming. I can feel the sun.

My wrapping began in earnest yesterday. I finished two adults and three children and managed to clutter two more rooms. Here in the den is wrapping central. On my table are my tools: scissors, a pen, heavy string and small pieces of wrapping leftover from the bigger presents and a tube of the paper of the moment. In the living room, the couch holds the wrapped present bags. The dining room has two tubs of wrapping paper and a couple of empty boxes to be filled for mailing. I hate clutter. I’ll work quickly.

I have outside stuff needing tending. A set of white lights on the side fence died, but I was fine with that until a second set died. Now I have to replace both. My bird feeders need filling, and I haven’t yet hung the horse’s head for the spawns. That will be first as spawns are notoriously impatient.

My scrub pine is up from the cellar. It needs to be pulled and fluffed. That’s the tree usually lighting a corner in the dining room, but this year it will be my only tree and will be in the living room. It is wonderfully ugly.

Henry is to my left on the couch. He is gnawing on his new bone which arrived from Chewy this morning. It is an actual bone, and Henry gets one every new Chewy order. I can see the marrow is already gone at one end. The wooden floor below where Henry gnaws has a peculiar pattern in the wood. It almost looks like a bird’s claw trail in the sand, but the marks are indentations from the end of Henry’s bone when it falls off the couch to the floor. Henry’s bone is a heavy bone. Jack is asleep on my other side. He leans against the arm of the couch and me. It is one of his favorite spots.

My car is dump ready so maybe I’ll go out later in the afternoon, but that’s a big maybe. I just don’t feel it today.

I am watching LlamaGeddon. The introduction was wonderful, a cartoon showing not only the llama’s flight from his home planet but also pretty much the whole plot of the movie. The llama has arrived on Earth in his animal trailer with wings. He has red eyes and is bent on death and destruction. This is labeled a comedy.

Yesterday morning was about as cold as it has been. My windshield was covered in frost. The dog’s outside water bowl had a thin layer of ice. We had snow flurries in the afternoon, and snow is still on the lawn and in the shade of the backyard, but the snow will melt today as it is already in the 40’s and will get near 50.

The morning is pretty. The sun is bright in a blue sky. An every now and then breeze blows the top branches of the pines. My wrapping odyssey begins today.

When I was a kid, I remember watching Santa Claus on a New Hampshire channel. He was on every afternoon. I remember Little Suzy Snowflake, a black and white cartoon. I can still sing her song, “Tap, tap, tapping at my windowpane to tell me she’s in town.” Watching A Christmas Carol has been a tradition for as long as I can remember. I read it first. One of my grandmother’s brothers had given me a book of Christmas stories, and A Christmas Carol was one of them. I loved the ghosts and Jacob Marley with his chains. Alastair Sim is my favorite Scrooge, but I’ll watch just about any Christmas Carol movie.

I admit I watch a few scary Santas now that I’m older. Krampus is my favorite. In the film, all the lights are out because of the snow storm. Sounds come from the chimney flue. A hook on a chain is lowered, and the lure is a gingerbread man cookie. One of the kids takes a bite, the chain circles him, and the kid is pulled screaming up the chimney. That is just the beginning of the horror.

One Christmas Eve my mother and I were still awake. We were chatting and having a drink or two and watching Christmas movies. That was the night we found Jack Frost, not the feel good Jack Frost the miracle snowman who comes back to play with his kid, but the serial killer Jack Frost who on his way to be executed is in a crash with a genetics truck. He is transformed by the genetic material into a killer snowman who goes through a murderous rampage in Snowmonton, the snowman capital of the world. My mother and I stayed up to watch the whole movie. It was dark and deadly but it was funny. If you are overloaded with the sweetness of Hallmark and the seldom changing plot of the prince faling in love with the commoner, just say Jack Frost and head on over to Prime or Tubi. You’ll know which movie to click.

Everything was wet when I woke up. It had rained while I was sleeping, and, then this morning, the rain started again, but only for a short while.

The day is cold and dark, even bleak. It is a day for staying warm at home. I have chores to do here like finish putting presents into individual bags, maybe a half hour chore, then wrapping them, an endless chore.

My friend Peg and I spoke on the phone yesterday and laughed a lot, mostly about bugs. Bill, Peg and I lived in a duplex together on school grounds in Ghana. We used to have cockroach hunts in the outside kitchen. Peg remembered knocking on the wooden kitchen door and hearing the cockroaches scurrying at the sound before we went in armed and ready . They were big. I told Peg about one of my favorite movies, the original In-Laws. Peter Falk, a CIA agent, was at the dinner table with his son’s soon to be in-laws when he talked about the six months he spent in the bush, and the giant tsetse flies which picked children up with their beaks and took them away. The flies were called the Jose Grecos de Muerte, the flamingo dancers of death. That they had beaks was questioned. Faulk swore those flies had beaks and was sorry his slides couldn’t be processed. I’m telling you now I saw giant bugs in Ghana. I’m not sure about the beaks.

Peg and I laughed again about the flour. We had to buy giant bags of it which we stored in the kitchen we didn’t use because of no gas for the stove. The bags enticed what I think were weevils because we could see them in the flour, but that was no big deal. We just sifted the flour to catch the larger bugs. The smaller ones got baked into whatever we were making and were rendered harmless.

Peg and I couldn’t think of a bug which scares us either there or here. The centipede was impressive, and I did let it have his way, assuming it was male for no reason.

I am not a lover of flies. I know they do have a couple of redeemable factors, but I don’t care. Chase that fly. Either whack it with a magazine or swat it with an old fashion swatter. Jack eats flies thereby earning his keep.

When I went to get the papers, I could feel the morning chill. The air was clear, the way it is sometimes on winter mornings. The sunlight was slanted across the trees and empty gardens. I stood outside for a bit. It was a lovely morning, but since then, light grey clouds have taken over. It will be cold, down to the 30’s today with maybe rain tonight. I will be safe and warm at home.

This morning my mailman dropped off two packages. He was on a package run and will deliver my mail later. He told me he had worked all day Sunday.

Yesterday I ate Sunday dinner. It had been a while since I grabbed more than cereal, hot dogs or eggs on Sundays. I baked a spatchcocked chicken, two sweet potatoes and two regular Yukon Gold potatoes. For dinner, I chose the sweet potato to go with the chicken, and I added peas as I happened to have a can of Le Sueur Sweet Peas, my favorite, in the cabinet. The chicken was baked perfectly. The sweet potato was delicious. I loved my Sunday dinner, and I get to do eat it all again tonight.

I am behind my time as Bob Cratchit was. I have organized most of the gifts into bags and the bags are in family groups. I wonder what you call a group of presents in bags. I’m thinking a parcel of presents, but that seems too cute, too contrived. It could be an array as in hedgehogs, one of my favorite little animals. Even Henry has a hedgehog. I like passel as in passel of pigs though the pig part could be an issue, but, after searching a bit, I found the best description, a parade of presents. Into my head came a vision, a parade of dancing presents wrapped in different colored paper. Some had arms, some did not. Then It came to me. I remembered a popcorn box with arms. It was intermission at the drive-in when all the food went on parade.

My friends sent me an Advent calendar with a chocolate behind every number. I am so excited. I get to eat 7 days worth today.

The predicted winds arrived last night around six. They whooshed for a while. It started to rain again. The air felt warm at 48˚. But it’s getting colder now in the darkness, down to the 30’s. Henry doesn’t stay out long. I do have a jacket I bought for him last year, but I’m thinking he won’t allow me to put it on him. The jacket is blue, and it would stave off the cold and look good at the same time. Ah well!

As soon as I walked out the door this morning, I knew it was cold and it was cloudy, but the sun has since appeared with a winter sharpness. I asked and found out it is only 36˚ but the day will get as high as 44˚. That I think 44˚ is a high means my head is in winter mode.

Today is elf day when I am finalizing the Christmas count. Everything is so slow a few packages haven’t yet come. The one my sister sent the day after Thanksgiving priority mail from outside of Boston arrived yesterday. My mailman was delivering to me when another delivery car went by him. I asked about it, and my mailman said there were so many packages they had to have carriers just delivering packages, no mail, but my guy did deliver a couple of small packages to me.

When I was a kid, the mailman delivered twice a day during the Christmas season. We’d hurry to the door to be the first to grab the mail. There were always several envelopes, Christmas cards. We hoped for a card, and sometimes we got cards from our aunts. I remember a paper Santa Claus with a wreath empty in the middle for hanging on a branch. We put it on the tree, mostly to hide an empty spot. My mother would let us take turns opening family cards. I remember strings of cards above the couch and across the living room doorway. I still like to send cards. I have some amazing cards this year. I bought my Edward Gorey, a collection of Christmas cards, and there is a set with a pig walking upright who is dressed to the nines for Christmas. It is an amusing card. I have cards from the fifties which are wonderful surprises. I buy family cards. I wrote all the cards out last night, ready for mailing tomorrow after I buy stamps.

I’m thinking I need a ride to see the lights. Some neighborhoods are known for their lights. When I was a kid, it was a Saugus neighborhood, not so far away. I knew the route well. It was the same way we always got on and off Route 1. The houses were spectacular on street after street. I think we all had huge grins the whole time we looked out the windows. The lines of cars on both sides of the street went slowly. We went through twice so we each saw all the houses both sides of the street up-close.

My fence is lit with colored lights in the front. The side has a giant white star with a trail of white lights. The ornament tree will be lit from the new spot light I bought. I’ll put it out tomorrow. I also need to bring the cow up. I fell in love with him last Christmas. My yard will be bright in the darkness.

Today is dreary. The rain started last night and hasn’t stopped. It beats on the roof sometimes heavily. The wind is picking up as I can see the pine boughs bending. Henry had to be convinced that going out was a good idea. It wasn’t but he went anyway. I waited for him as he thinks the dog door works only one way. In a bit, he wanted out again, and off he went. I heard him banging the dog door cover for me to let him in, one of my least favorite Henry things, but I’m well trained. I got up, but, halleluia, Henry let himself in. He was soaked but he didn’t care. He knew he had earned a treat from his Christmas box. I gave him a frosted Santa.

My family always buys real Christmas trees. Last year I bought two, one short and one shorter. I put both in the corner. The shorter one went on a chair. Together they looked like a tall, full tree. On the smaller one I hung all my character ornaments: Mark Twain, Sherlock, Captain Hook, the witch from Over the Rainbow, some Chinese men traditionally dressed which might seem weird but isn’t. They look perfect on the tree. There are others, and this year I’m adding Ruth Bater Ginsburg in her robe and collar. The taller tree is filled with anything and everything, and its boughs bend a bit under the weight. I’m just fine with that. No icicles or tinsel are on either tree. I learned my lesson when I saw one of my cats had a strand I had to pull from a gross part of her anatomy. The icicles never appeared on any of my trees again.

My electricity blinked and havoc followed. The TV went out, and cable hasn’t come back, Alexa can’t connect, probably a good thing as Alexa is highly annoying, and the internet is unavailable. I’ll just keep typing.

Everything is back. Cable took the longest. If I heard Alexa with her red ring tell me one more time something was wrong, I would not have been responsible for my actions. I can hear her now, ” I do not know what is happening. Why am I flying?”

My sisters and I talk, and friends have called to make sure I’m okay. I’m working on that, but it just isn’t easy.

Today is cloudy and rain is predicted for later. It is warmer than I thought. When I went out with Henry, I could smell a wood fire so I stayed outside for a while. Henry impatiently waited. He didn’t appreciate the moment.

Yesterday I rode around for a while and made a couple of stops for the last of the Christmas presents. I bought books for all the grands, a tradition I started when their parents were young. Most are Christmas books but for the older two I got novels. One is Treasure Island. I wanted Little Men as Lexy had read Little Woman, but they only had an abridged version. I mean seriously who would think to abridge Little Men? I forget the name of the other one as it was recommended by one of the ladies at the store. I also stopped to buy chocolate to put into the Christmas bags.

My timetable tells me I need to finish putting the gifts into the individual bags. Starting tomorrow I wrap. My den then becomes Christmas central with bags and boxes all over the room waiting to be wrapped. My Christmas cards are also on the to-do list. I found some great cards this year including my traditional Edward Gorey’s.

In my long conversation with a friend yesterday, we talked about everything, including Mike. She wanted to know if I was spending time with the people in my bubble. She was shocked to find I have had no bubble all these months unless you count Henry and the two cats. I told her I talk to Henry all the time, but he doesn’t always listen. He stands there and looks dog bored. The cats are always bored. It is in their nature.

I actually did my wash yesterday, but the big load is still in the dryer. I chuckled when I realized that my laundry was mostly teeshirts, sweatshirts and flannel pants, the pieces of my usual daily ensemble. I do have a set of going out clothes, almost like my school clothes of old. I put them on, go out and then take them off when I get home. The only exception is when I go to the dump. It only rates my daily ensemble.

When I was growing up, there were the aunties. Auntie Clara and Auntie Madeline are the two I remember. Auntie Madeline was my grandmother’s sister. She always played the piano at parties, and everyone sang along. Singing was traditional at all family parties. I can see still the crowd in the kitchen at my parent’s house singing St. Patrick’s Day songs. My father stood by the counter, and I loved to listen to him sing. He had a great voice as did my mother.

In time, my parents and their siblings became the aunties and uncles. My mother had seven siblings, my father two. My Uncle Jack led the chorus in the kitchen. He loved Bing and thought of himself as a vocal kin. He’d get a ride from one of his kids every Friday to my parents’ house. They played games and sang in the kitchen as always. Once in a while, on a Friday, I’d get a late call. I’d pick up the phone and hear, “Leenie, Leenie,” which my uncle called me. We’d chat a bit then he’d ask if I wanted a song. I always said yes. When I was in Ghana, my sister put together a mixed tape of songs from the radio so I’d know what was new. When I listened, all of a sudden I heard my Uncle Jack singing a Bing song. He had seen my sister taping and wanted in. It was the most wonderful surprise.

My cousins and my siblings are now the aunties and uncles with grown children and grands. I am Aunt Kat.

Yesterday my phone rang at 8:15. The machine came on before I could pick it up. My sister left a message, and her voice alerted me that something horrible must have happened. I thought my Uncle Jack had passed, but it wasn’t Uncle Jack. It was my nephew Michael who had turned 39 last week. My brother, his father, found him. Michael was my godson. I have no words. I forget for a minute then I remember. I didn’t think this year could get worse. I was so very wrong.

Yesterday the weather was dramatic. The rain was heavy and loud. It banged on storm doors and windows. When Henry wanted out, I opened the closed back door for him. I waited while he poked his head beyond the door jamb, got rained on then backed into the kitchen. Later, serendipitously, the rain stopped but only a while. Henry ran to his tree. He was there a long time.

The wind was tremendous last night. It howled and even whistled. When you added the rain, it was a night to stay close to hearth and home.

When I woke up, it was still raining and still a bit windy. The prediction is for a warm day with a high of 61˚ and a low tonight in the high 30’s. I’m not going anywhere.

When I was a kid, rainy days were not my favorite walk to school days. I got wet, and my shoes squished when I walked. My socks took on a life of their own. They got heavy, soddened with water, and if I took my shoes off, I left footprints on the wooden cloak room floor when I walked. I never thought of the easy solution of putting another pair of socks in my school bag.

I watch news channels on and off during the day. Their commercial breaks are long with commercial upon commercial upon commercial, no exaggeration. I have come to hate Car Shield. Its endless commercials are on both news channels. I know this because when I switch from one channel to the other, I can’t avoid Car Care.

The Globe had an op-ed about Voice of America being saved from a Trump wrecking crew which attempted to turn it into a Trump propaganda vehicle. I remember listening to the moon landing on VOA when I was in Ghana. We were all around the radio like a Walton scene in their living room where they listened to Edgar Bergen, the ventriloquist, with his characters Charlie McCarthy and Mortimer Snerd. I have always been perplexed as to a ventriloquist on the radio. How do you know?

The morning is dark and damp. During the night, it rained, and more rain is predicted. Today it will be warm, maybe even 60˚, but high wind warnings are in effect for the Cape from this afternoon into late night. I always worry about the pine trees in the backyard during heavy winds. They bend from the top and sway. I’ll keep an eye.

Yesterday I started going through the Christmas presents I’ve already bought, and I put them into individual Christmas bags. I’ll finish sorting today then figure out what I still need to buy. I’m thinking overnight from Amazon. I want my gifts on the road by the end of the week wending their ways to Colorado, Florida, New Hampshire and Stoneham.

When I was a kid, pennies, nickels and dimes were big time money. Quarters made me weep with joy. My mother used to send me for milk or bread. The two nearest corner stores were three and four blocks away. I usually rode my bike. The white store was my favorite. One of the old ladies who ran it was always behind the counter. In my mind’s eye, I can still see the glass candy display case with wood around the outside edges. It was on the right as you went inside. It always took me a long time to decide how to spend my pennies. Mostly I chose the two for a penny candies. I remember Banana Splits candy. It was a square, hard, yellow candy which was chewable but barely and only after a while. You can still find it at Old Time Candy. Yup, it is now described as Old Time. No surprise there!

I hate Alexa. I love Hey Google. This morning I asked Alexa the weather on Cape Cod. She told me she didn’t know that place. I asked her to tell me about Cape Cod. She did, but when I asked her for the local weather again, she said she’d never heard of Cape Cod. I asked Hey Google, and I got my weather report. I wish Alexa could understand me calling her vile names. She always says, “I don’t know that one.”