The car windows are covered in frost. The morning air is cold. It is only in the mid-30’s, but the weather prediction is for the low 40’s, and, with no wind, it will feel warmish. I have some outside chores today. I need to clean Nala’s mess in the backyard. I also need to connect the new timers for the front lights. I found a set of white lights yesterday in the cellar so I’ll add that set to those already on the deck. My chores won’t take me long so I’ll also finish decorating the house. I did a bit yesterday, but I have more to do. It will be a busy day.

When I was a kid, we started the countdown to Christmas a week away from the big day. Usually we were out of school on the 23rd. That heightened the excitement. On the 24th we stayed around the house. A few wrapped presents were always under the tree taunting us. In the late afternoon, we watched the New Hampshire Santa Claus make his good-byes before he took off in his sleigh. We didn’t know his route so we didn’t know how long it would be until he got to us. We just knew we needed to be asleep. I remember trying to go to bed as early as five, but my mother knew better so we were stuck downstairs. Sometimes A Christmas Carol was on so that whiled away the hours. Bedtime just never seemed to come soon enough for the first ever.

I always thought mass on Christmas Day was the worst. Having to leave all our new stuff seemed inhumane though I didn’t know that word back then, but I knew the feeling. My brother and I had to walk by ourselves to church because my parents had gone to midnight mass. I remember it was usually dark when we left for the earliest Christmas morning mass. Only the street lights were on. I remember at mass one year it was my brother and I and a few old ladies bundled in heavy coats and scarves. Mass was at the site altar, no altar boys and best of all, no sermon. It was my favorite Christmas mass of all time.

The rain stopped for a bit, but more rain and even snow are predicted for today. It got cold over night, and the cold lingers. The sky is grey and getting darker. Then wind is getting stronger. I have already been out this morning. I met with my surgeon. He was both pleased and surprised by the progress of my finger. He did say he was going to extend therapy for another month. He also said it would be at least a year before my finger would be at its best. He said again how terrible the injury was, and how lucky I am to have my finger. I figured he was trying to mitigate his announcement of a year. It didn’t help.

When I was a kid, a Saturday like today would mean staying home probably watching TV or reading upstairs in the quiet of my bedroom. My bike would be in its winter storage in the cellar by now coming out only on a warmish day. I do remember riding to the white store on Christmas Eve one year. My mother needed bread and milk. It seemed to me such an ordinary task on such an extraordinary day.

Like most kids, I really wanted a white Christmas. I knew Santa’s sleigh flew, but it had runners so it needed snow. I was always disappointed by a clear or a rainy Christmas except for one year. That was the year of the bike. I got to ride it on Christmas Day. I felt so proud sitting on my new bike and riding up and down the street. I hoped all the neighbors noticed.

I have a concert today. Originally I wasn’t going, but a spot opened up. It is in Orleans at a magnificent chocolate store. Last year at the concert I bought bagfuls of chocolate Santas and reindeer mostly for other people, but I did sneak in a few for myself. Tis’ the season for chocolate reindeer!

My backyard is filled with Nala trash, the remnants of her pilfered goods. This morning I noticed my bread was gone. It had been in what I thought was a safe place. I need a lock box. Nothing is safe. I really wanted toast this morning.

This morning has been busy. I went to Hyannis for a medical procedure then did a bit of shopping then went to the clinic. I am now in my cozies. Happy me!

The day was dark with ominous clouds when I left. It was spitting rain as my mother would have said. Many trees still had dead leaves on the lower branches. Their upper branches were bare silhouettes against the sky. As I was driving home, I got to thinking about the feeling of the day. It is a perfect start for a fairy tale, a grim one with witches and gnomes who live in the dark forest. Proceed with caution.

A bit ago the sun made an attempt to emerge from the clouds. The sky got brighter but the sun stayed behind, and that’s where the weather stands now. It is warmish at 45°, but there is a wind advisory. I don’t care. I’m staying inside warm and happy. I’ll continue decorating, and I have a couple of crafts I want to do. I also have a gingerbread house needing construction.

My house is beginning to look a bit like Christmas. I brought up my pine cone tree from the cellar and intertwined lights and a pine swag across the mantel. I hung the Christmas cards on twine with small clothespins just as my mother had done when we were young. I brought up the old nativity set. I haven’t placed it yet has it has to be where Nala can’t get it. Today I bought a few things at Rings including a couple of Christmas cards with a Cape theme; however, there is only one left. I did find pieces of the missing card.

When I was a kid, I loved everything Christmas. I loved decorating cookies and making ornaments. I read a Christmas Carol and watched the movie every single year. I followed along with the dialogue. Even now I still watch the movie and still follow along with the dialogue. Our tree had huge colored bulbs. They were beautiful. They also got really hot to the touch. We always had a real tree. Its aroma filled the living room. My sisters and I still get real trees. I can’t imagine having an artificial tree. Maybe when I’m old.

When I first looked out the den window, I was deluded by the sun and the blue sky I could see so when I went out for the papers, I gasped at the cold. We had a frost last night. The high today will be 39°. In whose world is 39° a high?

Joyous day! Skip, my factotum, is here. He is shutting down the deck right now then he’ll do the outside lights. He looks so cold I keep telling him to come in to get warm, but he says if he did, he’d never go out again. The dogs are staying out with him. They find him entertaining.

I’ll bring more decorations upstairs today. The few I brought up on Sunday have me wanting more. There are so many tubs of decorations downstairs I haven’t used many of those decorations in years, mostly the ones way back against the wall. I never get that far. I hope to this week. I’ll expect to be surprised by what I’ve forgotten.

I remember sitting at the kitchen table stringing popcorn and cranberries. We ate the popcorn while we strung. My mother looped the strands around the tree, up high so the dog would eat the popcorn. Afterwards, she hang them outside for the birds. When I first bought my house, I had very little money. I did manage to buy a small tree, a very small tree. I made many of the decorations with apples and oranges. I even made my own wreath. I thought the tree looked amazing.

When I was a kid, our tree had bubble lights. I remember my brother and I would sit and watch those lights to see who could find the first one bubbling. I still have that set, but I am bit afraid to plug it in. The set has to be around 70 years old. Luckily, though, I have a new set of bubble lights, and I still sit and watch for the first bubbler.

Christmas delights my senses. The aroma of the pine tree fills the house. I love coming down stairs in the morning and smelling the tree as I get closer to the living room. The outside lights are so beautiful I sometimes drive by my house a few times on sort of a tiny light ride to ooh and aah. I love Christmas cookies and breads. My uncle used to make anise cookies, my all time favorite Christmas cookie. He used to bring a few to my mother’s house just for me. I didn’t share. I play Christmas carols in the car and in the house and sing along. I never object to Christmas carols after Thanksgiving. They have too short a season to wait.

I have a list. I need apples, oranges and cinnamon sticks. I have a holly tree with plenty of branches for cutting. I’m going to make a swag for my tree. Let the festivities begin!

Winter has reared its ugly head. It is cold and rainy and only 37°. The constant wind makes it feel even colder. Nothing about the day is inviting. I’d love to stay home, but I have PT so I have no choice but to brave the elements.

Yesterday I did laundry, two loads of laundry. I felt accomplished. To add to that sense of accomplishment, I even brought up a few Christmas decorations. Today I’ll add more Christmas. It is time.

The house where I lived the longest was small. Upstairs were three bedrooms, the linen closet and a bathroom. I shared my bedroom with my sister. The radiator was on the wall at the foot of my bed. I loved to listen to it gurgle and steam. I used to sit beside it to get warm in the small space between the radiator and the bed. The bathroom had a tub but no shower. The living room downstairs was the biggest room. It was the room where we spent most of our time. The TV was there near the side wall. A desk was on the wall near the front door. I remember when we had our pictures taken we sat on that desk. I am wearing a skirt and blouse. The blouse had a bow. My brother wore a jacket, and my sisters wore dresses. If I close my eyes, I can see the kitchen. It was small. Only four chairs fit at the table in the corner. The stove too was small. The sink was across from the door. The fridge was on the same wall. My father used to go crazy if we left a glass by the sink without washing it out or opened the fridge just to hunt. Our Woolworth’s turtle’s bowl was on the counter.

That house was one side of a duplex in a project of duplexes. It was the first house you saw when you drove up the hill. It was on the corner and looked tall. The front lawn was a grassy hill. At the bottom of the hill was a streetlight and a mailbox. I used to watch out the picture window when we had snow. Every flake glistened under under the streetlight. It was almost magical.

Today will be a strange weather day. Both rain and snow showers are predicted. It is still cold, only 38°. Everything is wet from the rain during the night. The kitchen floor from the backdoor to the hall is covered in muddy paw prints.

I tend to get discouraged about my finger. It still doesn’t bend all that much. I work it at home and at PT, but it stays stiff and is often swollen. I try to use it a much as I can, but I’m limited so that doesn’t seem to help much. When I mention being discouraged, my therapist reminds me it was a horrific injury. It is the area of the fractures which is the most trouble.

Yesterday I filled my dance card with all of this week’s appointments and events. I haven’t a free day. I have three related to medical and four uke events. I long for my sloth days, for naps in the afternoon and for wearing cozies all day.

When I was a kid, the mailman came twice a day during Christmas time so he could deliver all the cards. We loved opening those cards, especially the few addressed to us kids. I remember my Aunt Barbara used to send each of us Santa cards. We’d put those cards in the middle of the tree to hide the bare spots. The rest of the cards we used to hang on a string which stretched across the living room wall. My mother always kept track of the cards she’d sent and the cards she’d received in her green metal Christmas card box filled with index cards.

My mother suffered from the Christmas bug and we, my sisters and I, caught it. Everything in our houses is decorated. We still buy live trees. Our yards are lit. My brother-in-law climbs a tree to hang his Santa and reindeer. All his neighbors look forward to Santa. I use colored bulbs out front and white bulbs, which are lit every night of the year, on the gate and fence and at the other end of the deck. I have a wreath on the small gate and front door.

This year I am very behind with wrapping presents and putting up decorations and the rest of the lights. It is that finger again. My factotum didn’t get back to me so I’ll do what I can, slowly do what I can. I hate slowly.

Today is cold, raw and damp. The sky is cloudy. Rain and snow are predicted. The temperature is only in the 30’s and will stay there most of the day. Nothing about today’s weather is inviting though every now and then a bit of blue breaks through, a false hope. I’m staying home. I’m going to start decorating, and tomorrow will be tree day. I’m even decorative. I’m wearing a new pair of flannel pants. They are blue and decorated with Santa and his sleigh, fir trees covered in snow, bright stars and red cottages with snowmen in front with top hats and carrots noses.

When I was a kid, one of my favorite Christmas traditions was decorating sugar cookies. I can’t imagine Christmas without sugar cookies. My mother had cookie cutters in the shapes of Santa, a tree, a bell, an angel and a reindeer. The reindeer was the most difficult to cut out and bake as his antlers sometimes broke. My mother would make frosting, put it in bowls then color it. The kitchen table always ended up with globs of frosting in a rainbow of colors. My mother also put jars of sprinkles in green and red and multicolored jimmies on the table. They made the cookies prettier, but they added to the mess, to the globs on the table, but it didn’t matter. The mess was part of the tradition. We always rewarded ourselves with a cookie or two.

I’m watching Christmas movies just about every day. When I was a kid, there weren’t that many choices. I loved Suzie Snowflake, a bit of animation with a song. We watched the New Hampshire Santa every afternoon. I remember a Rudolph cartoon. It was in black and white so no red nose, but we imagined it was there. I remember Frosty. He had a tall skinny top hat, and he carried a broom. We watched the Perry Como show. He wore great christmas sweaters and always sang Ave Maria. I remember watching a Christmas Carol every Christmas. It is still one of my traditions. I have seen it so many times I know much of the dialogue. Last night I watched the transformation of George C. Scott as Scrooge. It is one of the best. Maybe tonight I’ll watch the Muppets. I’m ready for a bit of Christmas whimsy.

The morning is windy and chilly, only in the low 40’s. I wore my thick blue sweater with snowflakes across the middle. It was a perfect choice. I was toasty warm. I went down cape to Orleans for PT. The highway, the mid-cape, as you go down cape has only a single lane on each side. Where I hit the highway has a double lane so I sped hoping to pass the white truck I could see before the second lane disappeared. I didn’t. That truck drove me crazy. The speed limit is 55. I usually go faster. The truck went slower. There was a line of cars behind us. The truck was the Pied Piper, and we were the rats following it out of town. Later, further down the road with even more cars behind us, I decided we were lemmings.

My dance card has never been this full. I have been busy every day this week. Today, though, I’m finished early. My PT was at 9:45. I have a list. During the rest of the day I have plants to water, laundry to do, Christmas cards to address and decorations to bring up from the cellar. I’ll bring up my scrub pine tree which is always in the dining room. Lots to do!

When I was a kid, every tree we had was beautiful. Their lights were strands of huge bulbs which got hot, but which we touched anyway in a short of contest of who could hold on to the bulb the longest. The large glass ornaments always went on the top branches. My mother put those on the tree. We put on the smaller glass ornaments, the Shiny Brights. Some had stripes, others had lines from Christmas carols and a forest or a chapel in the background, but most were just colored balls: blue, green, silver, gold and red. We had some wooden ornaments, and we used to put Christmas cards in the center of the tree to cover the bare spots. The paper Santa had a coke. My mother strung the silver tinsel around the tree. The last were the icicles made of lead and perfect weapons if rolled into balls. They hurt and made little red marks. My mother always yelled.

Once the tree was finished, I’d sit on the couch and admire it. Sometimes I’d lie underneath it and look up into the branches bright with color. I felt surrounded by Christmas. It was the best feeling of all.

Yesterday it rained most of the day. The rain was loud and heavy and hammered the roof and windows. The dogs chose to stay inside and wait it out until late in the afternoon when the rain lessened. Henry barely made it down the stairs. Nala ran into the backyard. I think I heard sighs of relief. Today is beautiful. It is 50° and sunny.

The other day I watched a couple of Christmas Carol films. I started chronologically with the oldest films I could find. I watched the 1935 film with Seymour Hicks and the 1938 film with Reginald Owen. I’ll work my way up to more recent films. I have a couple of favorites, the Alastair Sims and the Patrick Stewart versions.

Years ago, my mother, my sister and I went to Boston’s Wang theater to watch the play of A Christmas Carol. The tickets were a Christmas present from me, and I sprang for great seats. We were thoroughly enjoying the play. We were toward the end after Scrooge had been transformed and was about to announce he was as giddy as a schoolboy when the fire alarm sounded. At first people just looked around then it was announced we had to leave the theater. We were by an exit so we were out in only a couple of minutes. We stood outside. The people with the balcony seats took a long time to exit. They had to walk down sets of metal fire escape stairs before hitting the ground. There was no fire and no smoke. We never saw the ending of the play, the best part.

My sister in Colorado and her family came out for Christmas one year. My mother got tickets to A Christmas Carol at the North Shore Theater. We had gone to see it a few years earlier, and the costumes and effects were amazing, but I chose not to go; instead, I went with my brother-in-law and two nephews to see the Celtics. It was their last game on the parquet floor in the old Garden. We were allowed on the floor to take pictures. We stood by the mascot, Lucky the Leprechaun, in the middle of the court and took several. The Celts won. After the game, we went to the North End for dinner. It was a wonderful day.

When I was a kid, we often went to Boston at Christmas. We walked all around the Common where the trees were covered in lights. There were pens with reindeer, and people skating on Frog Pond. My father once bought roasted chestnuts from a cart for us to taste. I thought they were gross. We’d walk to the department stores, a couple of blocks over, to see their windows. I remember being awed, open-mouthed, at all the animation. Christmas in Boston is always one my of my favorite Christmas memories.