Tradition.

It's Christmas Eve, and I just got off of work about an hour ago; when I left, the world was spinning on as usual, with nary an evil-doer in sight....and the USAF was reporting that The Claus has clearance to enter US airspace.

I remember as a kid, getting up far too early and turning on the tree lights, and enjoying that sensation of expectation...all those wonderfully wrapped boxes containing who knows what, illuminated by huge, ancient lights reflected off of gobs of tinsel and what seemed like hundreds of ornaments; like a road map to the family Christmas history.

And school was out for a week.

Well, I've seen Christmas from all angles, I think....I've played Scrooge on various stages over three hundred times, I've celebrated it with my family, other people's family, and alone a couple of times. Even did a Hanukkah in Chicago, once upon a time when I was younger and in love.....

And I've worked through the night, and I've cooked huge meals for dozens and a frozen dinner for one and I can remember one particular Christmas where I had a rapidly shrinking stack of books on one side of the comfy chair and a rapidly growing stack of empty pizza boxes on the other.....

But nothing will ever compare to those mornings, with the lights and the anticipation and the laughter.

So, in the words of Scrooge's nephew Fred, "Merry Christmas!  God Save You!"*

 

*Taken from a letter written recently to my Uncle....yeah, I double dipped; sue me.