I would not describe the world as a winter wonderland. It is cold and breezy, only 21°. The snow has crusted. Walking on it makes a crunchy sound. I tried to clear my car but didn’t do well. All my scrapers were left in the crashed car. My broom, my alternate tool, got some of the snow off the car, but a layer of really crusty snow still stays on the windows and needs to be scraped. I was hoping the day would be warmer so the sun would melt the window snow, but it isn’t so I am housebound for the meantime. I missed a concert yesterday and will miss one again today. I’ll figure something out.

When I was a kid, on days like today, I’d be really cold walking home from school. I’d run to my bedroom, take off my school clothes and get into my cozies. That’s when it all started, my love for being cozy. I’d jump, well, not literally but poetically, into bed and snuggle under the covers until I was warm. Sometimes I’d get drowsy and fall asleep. It was the best sort of nap.

The dogs are napping beside each other on the couch. Nala is leaning against me. Henry is curled into a ball. Both are deeply asleep. I aspire to nap like my dogs.

From the time I was little, I knew Christmas magic. It was all around me. Colored lights on bushes and houses shined brightly through the deep winter darkness. The house smelled of pine and cookies baking. Wrapped presents under the tree lent mystery to Christmas though the new pajamas for Christmas Eve were easy to identify. They were always the presents we could open on Christmas Eve. We wanted to pick a different one, but we never won that argument. We’d squeeze and shake the other presents but usually couldn’t figure them out. My sister Moe was adept at making small holes in the presents and figuring out what they were. She made holes in all the presents. I used to love sitting in the living room with only the tree lights, the window lights and the flickering TV screen lit. The tree was the brightest of them all.

We have snow. It started around one with small flakes. Right now the flakes are huge and sporadic. I keep watching. They mesmerize me. We probably have a couple of inches, but some spots have less. I can see my walkway. Let it snow, let it snow!

I am a busy elf. I have started my Christmas goodie making. Yesterday I finished my toffee. While I was finishing the candy, my dogs sat below the counter drooling. I gave them a piece without the chocolate thus perpetuating their drooling.

When I was a kid, by this week, most of the Christmas preparations were finished. All that was left was the baking. My mother set whole afternoons away for the cookies. One of them was spritz cookies. My mother operated the press. You pushed the dough in the press down to the medal plate at the bottom. Each plate had a different design like a wreath or a tree. We never decorated them except my mother would add food coloring to the dough so the trees were green and other cookies were red. I have family stories about spritz cookies. My father only ate the non-colored cookies. He said the food coloring changed the flavor. We just smiled and nodded. One year I gave my mother an electric spritz maker. It went rogue. Dough flew all over. She never used it again. When my sister and her family from Colorado came for Christmas, she had made all sorts of cookies. I too had made cookies. We both made spritz cookies. They were part of our family Christmas lore. I have my mother’s press. I make the cookies every now and then. I color the dough.

Sugar cookies have always been my favorite. My mother had tin cookie cutters with a sort of handle on the top. Now they call them vintage. She had Santa with a pack on his back, a tree, an angel with wings, a reindeer and my favorite, a camel. She’d do the mixing and the rolling, and we’d do the pressing and the decorating. The kitchen smelled so wonderful while the cookies were baking. She’d pull the cookies sheet out of the oven and put them on the counter. We always begged for one. She’d give us one still warm from the oven. It never disappointed. We’d decorate after the cookies had cooled. That was the most fun.

Today I have some more Christmas to make. I won’t tell what as some of friends need to be surprised. Christmas is filled with surprises.