TheBanyanTree: The Night Before Christmas . . .

[Margaret R. Kramer]

Christmas is sleeping with one-eye shut while the other eye watches for
Santa Claus.
--Charles Schulz

The day before Christmas starts out at –11 degrees.  The sky is clear and
there is no wind.  And there is just a dusting of white stuff on the ground.
The almost full moon haunted our yard most of the night and created the
longest tree shadows imaginable, but scurried beyond the horizon as the sun
came up.

No matter I do, the day will drag along, just as it did when I was a kid.
Our family didn’t usually open gifts on Christmas Eve, so I remember
spending the day ice skating or drawing pictures and watching the clock tick
ever so slowly towards evening.  Our family would go to church and have a
big dinner when we got home.  And then I would wait and wait and wait for
Santa Claus to come.

As an adult, I’ll spend part of this slowest day on the calendar at the gym
working out.  I’ll begin to get dinner ready when I get home.  I’ll set our
table with our Christmas best china and tablecloth.  The family will come
during halftime of the Green Bay/Vikings game, so I’ll hold off on playing
Christmas music until the game is over.  The Vikings suck, but “Go Vikings”
anyway.

We’ll eat and eat and then clear off the table and get the dishes in the
dishwasher.  We’ll gather the dining room chairs and place them in our
useless living room (the room that’s only used for Christmas) and get ready
to open presents.  The older grandson will be my elf, since he can now read
everyone’s name this year, so he’ll get the job of passing out the gifts.
We do “one at a time” opening so we can all admire and thank the giver for
the gift.

With the gift opening done and the wrapping paper stashed into the garbage,
we’ll have coffee and pie and watch the children buzz around the house
fueled by sugar and adrenaline.

In spite of all this activity, when papa and I take our long winter’s nap,
the seconds will still be ticking as slowly as ever.  As I toss and turn and
wait for Santa, he’ll silently and magically slip down the chimney, and in
the morning, when time returns to normal, we’ll find our stockings stuffed
with goodies.

Margaret R. Kramer
margaretkramer at comcast.net

http://www.polarispublications.com
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I have always thought of Christmas time as a good time; a kind, forgiving,
charitable, pleasant time; the only time I know of, in the long calendar of
the year, when men and women seem by one consent to open their shut-up
hearts freely.
~Charles Dickens