Yes, the colossus of the holiday season, Christmas Day, is just around the corner.  My packages are wrapped, the batteries have been freshened for all of my indoor and outdoor lights (I’m up to 96 “AA” ones and 24 “AAA” – maybe going the battery route wasn’t the wisest of moves after all), and I’m ready for all of the merriment that the next few weeks will bring.

Until this past Tuesday, when after avoiding it for the last three years, I finally came down with COVID.  Talk about bad timing.  I’ve been isolating in my room like the “Bubble Boy” from ‘Seinfeld’ (“it’s the ‘Moors’, not the ‘Moops’!”)  Lots of joint pain, a roaring headache, and a bit of a sore throat, but I should hopefully be on the back-end of it all by the time you read this.  With the chef out of commission, the rest of the house has been spotted from time to time, wandering aimlessly around the kitchen (“is that what a stove is?”), so I’m sure they will be happy to have me back in the line-up, sooner rather than later.

My youngest daughter also arrived home for the holidays, so it’s a house full of family for the Christmas season, which makes it all the better, no matter what my temporary medical condition is at the moment.  She brought along her cat, Figaro, and while the other ladies of the house seem enamored, “Figgy” and I just stare at each other, much like two guys at a baby shower who don’t really know one another but are expected to engage in small talk in the front room.

The nights are crisp and clear, lights are up all over my small town, and all is calm and bright as we move through this final week of pre-Christmas hoopla.  I doubt that we’ll have a White Christmas (unless Bing Crosby and Rosemary Clooney are singing on the TV), but the living room will be warm, cozy, and filled with laughter and love.

I hope that each of you has a wonderful holiday season, no matter where your feet might land on Christmas Day.

PLEASE NOTE:  I’ll be taking the next two weeks off for the holidays, but I’ll be back in early January to see what 2024 has in store.  See you then – and Happy New Year!