Waiting For Christmas

At my house everything that will be done for Christmas has been done. All the presents are bought, wrapped, and separated into piles based on who will get them and where they are supposed to go. Unless my wife is lying to me they are all paid for. On my kitchen table is a small bag full of “reindeer food” that a co-worker gave me for my granddaughter. I will give it to her on Christmas Eve so she can spread it outside her home before Santa arrives. I am so happy that once again this year Christmas Eve is on a weekend. It makes it all so much easier. I don’t like working all day on Christmas Eve and then having to go home and immediately launch into the madness of Christmas Eve. I don’t have as many stops as I used to in the past but I still go to my mother’s where all my brothers and sisters will be along with their spouses and children. All of my nieces and nephews are young adults now and some have their own spouses and children. My mother lives in a small house so it’s every man, woman, and child for themselves in terms of finding a seat or getting to the food. Since my father passed away a few years ago, I am the oldest man in the family now. Only my 82 year old mother is older than me. At some point my wife and I, along with our family, will slip away and head to her sister’s home where her side of the family now gathers for Christmas. When it’s all over I will load up the car with any gifts we’ve received and head home. Then I will get in my bed and, hopefully, fall asleep quickly and have “visions of sugar plums dancing in my head”. What the heck is a sugar plum, anyway?