Christmas Brings the Unexpected and the Expected

We’re getting to crunch time in the holiday marathon. This is the week of Christmas parties; today a woman on Facebook said she was putting on glitter, just a little, since an office party loomed at the end of the day.

We look around the house and try to figure out how we can seat the twenty adults who are coming for Christmas eve. Buffet seems too sad and distant, so we scheme a way to add a big long table in the living room to accommodate the guests, the kids don’t need to be seated at a table, we decide.

I call my parents in New Jersey, rushing through the call because they have to watch Law and Order. “Did you get that message we sent you on Facebook?” Oh well. Sometimes expecting the oldsters to get FB messages is asking too much so we resend it by email.

Now it’s too late to order anything from Amazon and expect it to arrive by Christmas. Christmas, it turns out, is on a Sunday. I was thrilled when I found a little gift that I had slipped into my suitcase when I was in New Zealand and thought I had lost. The suitcases were full of wrapped presents, to hide them from the prying grandkids…I found it in a recess of the case and jumped with joy.

Christmas is coming.