The sun is shining outside, there’s a winter storm warning on for later tonight, the lights are twinkling inside AND out, I’m starving and there’s fresh deli ham and swiss cheese in the ‘fridge, Diet Coke was on sale so I stocked up, and I’m in the mood for some serious ‘Prisoner of Azkaban’ in a few minutes.

I call it Diet Coke, but it’s really Diet GenericCola.

But who cares, if it tastes the same. I only hide the labels from guests because it’s more tasteful and sophisticated and stuff if they are served with a glass instead of a can. I find the striped straw adds a touch of class unequalled in any fine dining establishment. And since I throw all the cans in a recycling bag out on the deck, they’ll never know.

I love these few days before Christmas. The anticipation is the best part. Those few days before the DAY, when it’s all before us, in the immediate future, beckoning us on toward delight. When it hasn’t happened yet. But you know it’s going to. But not yet. Not. . . just. . . yet. . . . .

Anticipation. Such a grand word.

There are all kinds of anticipation, of course. The looking-forward-to kind is of course best.

The kind you feel the day before your dental appointment is another story altogether.

I suppose ‘dread’ is the bad kind of anticipation.

I greatly anticipate these next few days.

My daughter is coming home very late on the evening of the 23rd. YAY!

My son isn’t sure yet about his work schedule but I am hoping he will make it on that night, too. If he can’t, I know he will come home as soon as he can.

We are all children at Christmas. Parents most of all, I think.

Well, I know two who are, anyway.

It’s, um, nobody we know.

I absolutely LOVE planning for Christmas. I love making lists. I love ordering gifts off the internet. I love undoing the boxes that come in the mail, and checking the contents carefully to make sure it’s exactly what I wanted for that person, and I love wrapping it in sparkly paper and covering it with ribbons and trinkets and candy canes. I love placing each package ‘just so’ under the tree.

I place the packages ‘just so’ under the tree for two reasons. The main reason is, of course, so it will look all festive and pretty and even. The other main reason is, that everyone in this house is inordinantly clumsy and we tend to not look down when we clump about and I don’t want any packages stomped on.

I bought my sweet MIL a cell phone. She is not technologically gifted at all so I went ahead and opened it, activated it, programmed the phonebook, and set up her voicemail and text messaging.

She already had a cell phone but it was very old and very large and she never did figure out how to use it. It was a complicated thing; I had a hard time figuring it out, too.

This new one is very simple. VERY simple.

And since she never used the old one, she was throwing forty dollars a month down the terlet. This new one is a TracFone, off the rack at Staples, and she can buy the minutes when she needs them. I’m starting her out with 150 minutes, and I would guess that she’ll never need any more. But she’s on the road a lot, and an older lady who doesn’t know how to change a flat tire NEEDS a cell phone.

Oh, it seems like I just can’t WAIT for Christmas.

At my age, you’d think I’d have calmed down about it, at least a little bit. But no, NOOO, I just get worse with every passing year.

I have all the stocking stuffers for my kids’ stockings. Some people stop hanging a stocking for their kids once they’re grown and moved out. Not me, buddy. My kids will have a stocking hanging off the sides of the piano till I’m dead. I mean, how else would they get chapstick and AA batteries? Buy them at a STORE? I think not.

I’m on vacation now. This is awesome. Of course, I don’t get paid but even so. VACATION!

I might even find the time to grade that woman’s exam.

After I watch ‘Azkaban.’ And eat.