We’re as ready as we can be. Gifts have been mailed off to out-of-town family. My wife and I have gifts for each other; I finished wrapping what I got for Lesa this afternoon.

Those of you who’ve read this blog for a while know that I drive out in the middle of the night to a nearby QuikTip, Exxon,  BP, or other nearby gas station with a mini-mart and stock up on last-minute bargains such as Pork Rinds, Tee shirts with various logos, a case of oil, and other treats that help make opening gifts a festive occasion each year.

While I would prefer opening gifts on Yule, we open them on Christmas Eve. This is a holdover from the days when we celebrated Christmas day with my parents one year and my wife’s parents the next year. Doing that just became a tradition, and we liked having our own gift exchange ourselves beneath the lights of the spruce Christmas Tree.

Neither of us has been well lately, so the indoor and outdoor decorations aren’t as lavish as usual. But they suffice. We used to send out a Christmas (Yule) letter but stopped that several years ago. We still send out a few cards, but now they’re always late if we get around to them.

My parents always had a co-called modern Yule log, i.e. one used on the mantlepiece with candles. Theirs had many years of multi-colored tallow on it before they died and my younger brother inherited the log and began adding more colorful tallow every year. With cats in the house, we avoid using candles, and after one Christmas of broken ornaments switched to the unbreakable kind.

Now that the ornaments won’t break, our cats tend to leave the tree alone. Go figure.

I tend to like the old-fashioned, Victorian-style cards even though they aren’t available in the stores. So I use them on my Facebook page. Wherever you are and whenever you celebrate, I hope you have a wonderful holiday season.

–Malcolm