Wednesday, December 24, 2008

Christmas Eve Day

Today is Christmas Eve day. My company will be letting everyone go home at 3:00, which is very generous. Staying in an office building until after dark on Christmas Eve seems rather draconian. Still, the holiday of Christmas seems to have rushed up from behind. Everyone I talk to is amazed that it is already here. George and I will be stopping off at the grocery store after work to buy the ingredients for our Christmas Dinner offerings. We will come home, put the groceries away and head to Church for the 6 p.m. service. I am the lector and we are both ushers at that service. I have a new red sweater to wear. Christmas is here!

Christmas Day is going to be very different. George and I have usually traveled somewhere for Christmas, and this is the first time we will be at home alone. My friends have invited us over for dinner, so that will be fun, and I'm sure that being alone on Christmas morning will be just fine. We will have apple pancakes and make some Christmas cookies. I often bake sugar cookies on Christmas morning anyway. It is finally slow enough to really enjoy the process, and cutting them out in shapes and decorating them with piped frosting and colored sugar takes a slow morning to really enjoy the process.

Frankly, I am pretty excited about Christmas this year. In fact, I woke up early this morning and couldn't get back to sleep. When I was a little child, I would lay awake on Christmas and wonder what "sugar plums" were. I always heard about them at Christmastime, but no store I ever saw ever sold "sugar plums". That is the way I feel today. Wondering about what Christmas will be like without Michael and Michelle here, and wondering where I can find the recipe for "sugar plums."

Have a great day. Enjoy each and every minute of Christmas. It only comes once a year.