Here it is, December again. Just this morning I was telling Don that we have reached the age of Warp Speed. When you’re young, time moves like molasses. It takes forEVER for your birthday to come, or the holidays. But as you get older, time picks up speed with every year, until as you near the end, days/months/years pass so quickly it all becomes a blur.
In my family, we’ve always seen the year out with a bang. My mother’s birthday was Dec. 6, my sister Dec. 7, Then Christmas. December 16 was always the traditional day for decorating the Christmas tree when I was a kid. It was my parents’ wedding anniversary, and it didn’t seem odd to us youngsters that the folks spent their anniversary buying and decorating their Christmas tree instead of foisting us off on some relative and going out on the town. December 16 may seem late to be putting up your tree these days, but back in the day we bought big old live trees, and you didn’t want them turning into dried up firetraps before the season was over.
Don resisted buying an artificial tree for the first untold number of years of our marriage, but when he got sick in 2008 and couldn’t go tree shopping, I put up a little fake tree that I had used in my Scottish shop. A couple of years later I bought a pretty little fake tree that we have used ever since. It doesn’t smell the same, but I don’t have to sweep up needles every day, either.
And then my birthday is at the end of the month. I’d tell you which one, but sometimes I can’t believe it myself. It’s all such a blur…
For your Christmas Tell Me Your Story treat, don’t miss Rosemary Simpson, whose Gilded Age Mysteries are a wonderful trip back in time. That’s coming up on Dec. 20 through Dec. 31. Followed by 2024.
See you on the flip side. Oh, and remember, books make great Christmas presents, especially if they’re signed by the author.
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