We always called today Christmas Eve Eve figuring we were so close to the real thing today deserved its own special name, but being so close to the BIG day meant the day passed slowly. It was as if we could hear the clock tick away the minutes. Seeing the wrapped presents under the tree didn’t help. They heightened the anticipation.

I remember one Christmas Eve my mother sent me to the white store for milk. We had no snow so I rode my bike. I remember riding and thinking Christmas Eve was such a momentous day that doing an errand was just wrong.

We watched A Christmas Carol on TV. My favorite Scrooge was and is Alastair Sims. I always think A Christmas Carol movie has to be in black and white. Those colors seem to heighten the dreary mood and the bah humbug of Scrooge. The ghost of Christmas future was a bit scary. He never spoke, just pointed. That was eerie.

My mother was the best Santa. She bought us the perfect gifts. One Christmas I got a new skirt, a furry white sweater and a medallion on a gold chain. I changed into my new outfit to go to mass. I felt special.

After midnight mass, my grandparents would come to our house to watch us open our presents and see our toys. We got woken up which was both good and bad. It was good because we got to see all our gifts really early, but it was bad because we had to go back to bed. One year I got a big, soft doll with elastics on her feet. The elastics attached to my shoes so she and I could dance together. She always followed perfectly. I brought her to bed with me. Later, my brother and I sneaked downstairs to play with our toys. I put the doll in my bed and covered her. My parents yelled down for my brother to get back to bed. They saw the doll under the covers and thought I was still bed. I stayed up and played. My brother was nice enough not to squeal on me.

Today is cold. This is winter indeed. I am still sick, but I think I am getting better. I have had only one nap so far today and no one on the phone has called me sir.

The dogs are in and out quickly. When they come back inside, their fur is cold to the touch. They keep standing in front of the treat cabinet. I guess they feel they need to bulk up to face the cold of winter.

When I was a kid, Christmas was the biggest day of the year. It took a great deal of preparation. We had to go through the Sears catalog time and again to figure out what we wanted so we could write our letters to Santa. I always used to add the item number so they’d be no confusion. Outside lights came next. My father would bring up the boxes of lights from the cellar. The bulbs were big and got hot. He’d place them across the tops of the bushes beside the front door.

The tree was bought. My parents did the tree shopping. My father’s choice was always a bit skimpy with a few holes in the middle. My mother always chose the fullest tree, the more expensive tree. My father set the tree up in the living room so the branches could fall. It would stand there, in its corner, for a few days. The aroma of pine filled the house. Finally it was time to decorate. First came the tree lights. The strings of lights were entangled in balls. My father put them up and took them down so the all the entanglements were his fault. He cursed loudly and often. After the strings were untangled, it was time to figure out the bad bulb. One bad bulb meant the string didn’t light. My father had a technique, and it seemed to work. He’d then circle the tree with the lights. The outlet nearest the tree had several strings of lights plugged into it. I don’t know why it never shorted out. My father’s tree work was done.

My mother was in charge of decorating the tree. She’d wrap the garlands, the silver garlands, around the tree. Ornaments went on next. We all took instructions as to what bulbs went high and what bulbs went low. Once that was done it was icicle time. We were tossers. She wasn’t. Her icicles went on the branches one at a time. The tree looked beautiful.

Decorating the house and making cookies followed the tree. We had plastic Santas which lit up, ceramic carolers and reindeer. The nativity had its own spot on the table. Some of the figures had chips, but that didn’t matter. The arrangement was pretty much the same every year: wisemen on the left, shepherds and sheep on the right and Mary, Joseph and their baby in the middle.

After all of that, we still had days of waiting until Christmas, what felt like endless days.