Merry Christmas to all and to all a good night; which seems like it comes faster and faster. The nights that is. I remember some years ago, not that many, actually, when I used to think, “well, I will get all the chores done during the day that need doing plus all the shopping for presents and then tonight, I will just curl up in a blanket by the fire and address Christmas cards, all the while waiting for sugar cookies to finish baking so we can have a goodies to eat while wrapping presents from 9 to midnight, just enjoying the Christmas movies” Ah…the joys of Christmas. w
That is not happening. We are now to the age when it (and when I say “it”, that means absolutely anything that requires standing, concentrating or movement of any kind that makes us get out of our recliners) doesn’t get done by 6 p.m., it simply doesn’t get done till tomorrow. The sad thing is that my mind still thinks of the evenings like they use to be. Each day, I wake up and simply go through the day thinking that, “oh well, if I don’t get it done during the day, I still have tonight when I can just stay up until it gets done.” But I guess you already know that doesn’t really happen. Why can’t my mind catch up with my actual reality. Why can’t I just wake up in the mornings, accepting the fact that I have a time space of between 8 a.m. (or 9, whenever I manage to finish my Dr Pepper and make my morning phone calls, to get dressed) to around 6 p.m. that I have the energy to do all that needs to be done. That way, I wouldn’t get discouraged, when, from 6 p.m. till the next morning, guilt creeps up on me that I simply didn’t have the stamina to stay up, watching Christmas movies or bake 20 dozen cookies or address 100 Christmas Cards. Frosty and I have come to think that it really isn’t us getting old. We think that somehow our Lazy Boy recliners have a magical power that sweeps over us the minute we lean back in them. We simply never get out of them until it is time to wake up and dress for bed.
Our goal this year is to “step away” from our Lazy Boys, at all cost. We are simply watching TV standing up. We eat our meals at the table, not from lap trays that we keep by our “magic” chairs. We have yellow tape across the chairs so that when we are tempted to just “sit for a minute” we figure that by the time we removed the yellow tape, we could have addressed another 5 Christmas Cards. So far it is working. We have our Christmas jammies washed and ready to begin wearing so that just in case the weather drops below 80 this week, we are ready for that picture perfect pre-Christmas evening. We will take a picture of us standing beside a pile of wrapping paper, a cup of Eggnog in one hand and a No-Doze pill in the other. Ah, it is going to be a great Christmas. Today, Frosty and I are headed to pick out new recliners for our Christmas presents to each other. Maybe the new ones won’t have the same awful magical powers that these worn out ones have had. We can only hope. If not, I’m going to get a lot of baking done today before 6 p.m. before the new ones are delivered, just in case.
Chocolate Castles as wel 