The day is warm with sunlight and a blue sky with scattered white clouds. I am a happy woman as my house is less cluttered from unwrapped Christmas gifts and wrapping paper as I move from room to room. In my bedroom, only empty bins are left to be put in the eaves when everything is finished. The living room is filled with bags overflowing with wrapped gifts. I have been in a frenzy, and everything is ready for UPS tomorrow. I just need to staple the tops of the bags, print labels and load the car.

My house is still bare of Christmas except for some poinsettias and a few table top decorations I bought at the florist. Once all the gifts are sent, I’ll bring up some decorations. I’ve ordered Christmas dinner for pickup on Christmas Eve. I’ve sent out my Christmas cards. My tree is still in the middle of the living room because I have to straighten branches and rehang the ornaments which fell during transport from the cellar, but it should be ready today. I’m also putting the cow and the donkey out front. My yard needs whimsy.

When I was a kid, I loved when it was time for decorating the tree and putting lights outside on the bushes and inside on the window sills. The bulbs on the outside lights were huge and always got hot. They were colored lights. That’s all anyone used back then. Last year my friends gave me a five bulb window decoration called a chandelier candle lamp. I did not know that it had its own name. One just like it was always in our picture window and always with orange bulbs. I put my new old one in the kitchen window which can be seen from the road. It is a connection to all those Christmases on Washington Ave when I raced to turn the bulbs on, to be the first. The big coup was turning on all five bulbs.

Yesterday was a good day. I wrapped gifts until I ran out of tape and I put more boxes and bags into the car for my dump run today. I need an empty car for the trip to UPS on Monday. I’m about half way through my wrapping.

The morning is foggy and hazy. It is warm and will get warmer, to the low 50’s. Everything is still in the thick air. Even the smallest branch just hangs. Rain is a possibility for later.

Sometimes Henry sits right beside, and if I don’t pat him, he gently taps the top of my leg with his paw. He follows me into the kitchen then leans on me for attention. I pat him, and I sometimes give him a treat.

Henry didn’t let me pat him for a long time when he first came to live here. I didn’t push it though I longed to pat him, to show him some love. Henry took time, but I was always patient. We started slowly with a pat or a scratch here and there, and finally, here we are nearly two plus years later, and Henry pats my leg.

The lights I put on the fence to replace the dead ones are LED’s. I swear they are so bright you can probably see them from space, or at least from a low flying airplane or better yet a helicopter just above the trees. One of the light sets I took off the fence still works. It was probably attached to the dead strand. I’ll use it on the mantle.

Cocoa has been my go to drink on the really cold nights. I fill my huge mug with milk and put it in the microwave to heat. The cocoa is an organic, dark hot cocoa mix. I smack my lips after every sip. It is that delicious.

When I was a kid, the milkman always left one bottle of chocolate milk with the bottles of white milk. I never thought of it as anything but ordinary. The house rule was we had to mix the chocolate with the white milk so the chocolate would go further, would last longer. Mostly we drank it at supper though it went well with a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. Actually, it went well with anything. Chocolate is like that.