As a blogger, there are times when you’ve just got to put something down. This seems an awful lot like going against my conviction that I only post when there’s something to post about. I’ve been ill for over 4 weeks now, and while I suppose I’m the best I’ve been during that time, I am still not entirely better. But with the flu most recently in my rearview, I’m perfectly content to just have a cough and congestion.

Lately we’ve been thinking more and more about Christmas; talking about a tree, watching kids make their lists, and waiting for Thanksgiving Day when 98.1FM turns to all Christmas music all the time, until the New Year. I love Christmas music.

Since we’ve been married, we’ve bought a real Christmas tree each year. But this year we’re on the hunt for a nice quality prelit tree. I know, its not the same and some might argue that going “fake” is nothing but lame but when we moved to our new house, we discovered that the best spot for our Christmas tree is flanked with two vents in the floor. So warm, dry air blew onto our real Christmas tree and dried it out in no time, despite my best watering/feeding efforts. It didn’t take long and needles were jumping off that tree just by looking at it. Sad. What I’ll miss most is the smell. And the sap on my hands that never wears off. What I WON’T miss is the 1,000 laps around the tree, stringing lights. Even moving at such a slow, methodical pace I’d still get dizzy and fall down.

And I won’t miss barking at my kids to “Would you just WAIT!” when they’d ask if they can start putting ornaments on the tree yet. Everybody knows that you put the lights on and then the ornaments. That is of course, unless you’re also going with the silver pearls motif…again.
Only AFTER the lights were strung would we unleash the kids to start the ornament hangings. But with a prelit tree, that wait will theoretically be much shorter.

Yes, I love Christmas. I love all the traditions. One of which is the showing of “A Christmas Story” movie. Christmas lends itself to great movies and to me, that one is just about the best. Everyone remembers where they were when they first heard the words “Fa Rah-Rah, Rah-Rah…Rah Rah, Rah, Rah!” And even if you’ve never seen the movie, you’ve probably been told, “You’ll shoot your eye out!” And no joke, put some dark rim glasses on my oldest son and he’s instantly Ralphie. I’m thinking about getting him some pink bunny pajamas for Christmas.

But I suppose as cliche’ as it is, I’d have to say that my all-time favorite movie will always be “It’s a Wondeful Life”. I can quote the movie word for word, from Sam Wainwright’s “Hee-haw” to Clarence’s “Your mouth’s not bleeding either, George” to George’s (to Mr. Potter), “Why, in the whole vast configuration of things, I’d say you were nothing but a scurvy little spider!” And I still get choked up when Mary and George, after looking all over town for each other, finally meet back at home, her running up the stairs, and him running down when they meet on the landing in a flurry of hugs and kisses, just before their world is about to change in the crowded livingroom downstairs. Yes, in my book “It’s a Wonderful Life” takes the cake as the best movie ever.

So, here I am, sitting mid-November at the cusp of a wonderful Christmas season, ready to welcome family to town, ready to crank up the radio–blaring Christmas hits, ready to check off (a few of) the things on my kids’ lists, ready to get that Christmas-time feeling, and most of all ready to usher in the season when the world (and time itself) was forever altered by the birth of a baby in a quiet manger where no one noticed. I’m ready.