Celebrate Good Times

Halloween is now behind us (thank goodness – not my favorite faux holiday), the clocks have been turned back to ensure sunrise by 7am and sunset by 5, and the sprint to Thanksgiving, Black Friday and the holiday season is now underway.

There’s a morning chill in the air when we walk the dog and the colorful trees are starting to fade.  But I don’t mind it at all, because fall is my favorite time of the year.

I feel more energetic this time of the year.  It puts more of a bounce in my step.   I love the annual turkey fest and the stuffing I only have the strength to make on Thanksgiving.  Because my parents are elderly and very infirm, the Thanksgiving feast comes to them as my daughter, my sister and my husband patiently join me in mom’s kitchen to chop, stir, baste and enjoy the good humor of a holiday focused on gratitude for family, friends and food.  Amen.

December is my big vacation month each year, when I use up virtually all of my remaining paid time off from work to give myself a long break – long enough to enable me to restart my increasingly creaky work persona again in January.   And then there’s Christmas, when the food is non-stop and banned indulgences like fondue and fudge are enjoyed.  Last year we celebrated over a meal with our neighbors…a huge brined turkey and oodles of treats healthy and not…great fun which I hope we’ll be able to repeat this year. 

Finally, New Year’s champagne is uncorked with our closest friends, with whom we cook a New Year’s Eve feast followed by chit-chat, dessert and a countdown to midnight.  By 12:05am they are out the door and on their way home, and we’re half way up the stairs to bed.  Perfect friends, perfect evening, perfectly wonderful.

Although they almost always are just a wee bit disappointing as they unfold, the child in me still adores the excitement and anticipation of the end of the year holidays and all the planning required to make them as festive as possible.  On New Year’s Day, when I think back on the previous weeks’ activities and look ahead to days about to unfold, I happily pretend that everything was and will be magical, even though the adult me knows it won’t be….exactly that. 

I expect I’ll be posting breathlessly about birthdays and Thanksgiving and Christmas celebrations in the coming weeks.  So bear with me -- I’m a Sagittarius and this is my time of the year!