The first thing I do every morning is let the dogs loose. After that I light the trees, the Santa’s and the stars. The house twinkles.

I see and feel the cold just by looking out the window. It is a perfect day to stay inside and bundle under the afghan on the couch and read with a couple of dogs beside me keeping me warm.

We had a dusting of snow last night then rain then freezing cold. The road is rutted with ice. The low today will be 17°. The high will be 32° as if that can be described as high.

My mother used to tease me about presents. She’d tell me knew what I was getting, and how much I’d love it. Even when I was an adult she’d tease. It was always one of the fun traditions of Christmas.

We always had an Advent calendar with little doors which were numbered 1 to 25. We’d take turns opening the day’s door. The 25th was always the manger scene. The other doors had toys, Christmas trees and an angel or two. The higher the number the closer we got to Christmas and the more excited we’d get. I remember counting the unopened doors so I knew how far away Christmas was.

My mother always put a few wrapped presents under the tree. I think she did it deliberately to drive us crazy. We’d shake and squeeze the presents hoping to guess what they were. The pajamas, destined to be opened on Christmas Eve, were easy. My sister knew what many of the other presents were. She could see through the small hidden hole she had torn in each present.

Every year the school had a Christmas fair. It was up the street at the town hall. We walked there in class lines in twos accompanied by the nuns, but once we’d arrive, the nuns let us loose. The big hall had tables filled with gifts and cookies. My mother would give us money to buy gifts and lunch, usually a hot dog. The best table was the children’s table. It was loaded with gifts to buy which were a dime or a quarter. One year my sister bought my mother a Christmas cactus. It was kept on the end of the kitchen table by the window. It got enormous over the years and flowered every Christmas. It lived for 60 or 65+ years.

Today I still need to fill the bird feeders as I couldn’t in the rain. I hope to build the gingerbread house I bought yesterday, and I have a Christmas jigsaw puzzle to put together. I also have my book. The day will be filled.