Happy Holidays

When it comes to the holidays, I’m a really big five-year-old. I love the lights, the paper, the singing, the baking, the TV specials, and most of all the presents.

In theory.

In reality, things never seem to come out quite the way they do in the movies, do they? Somebody gets sick, someone hates what you bought them, and the big family dinner just leaves you with a kitchen full of dirty dishes.

Know what?

I still don’t care. If I can’t find a perfect holiday in real life, then I’ll watch “White Christmas” one more time, and make the most of what I do have. Even though the cynical males I live with would rather not bother with the tree, lights, and festive spirit, I do so anyway, and come up with ways to make it work for them. Yes, one of my Christmas albums contains songs like “Christmas Night of the Living Dead,” and “Don’t You Come Home for Christmas.” If they can laugh, they put up with my holiday eccentricities. It’s a compromise that works for us. And laughing with them reminds me that what I DO have is a couple of sons who are now functional adults, and a husband who adores me enough to put up with my seasonal mania. In the grand scheme of things, that just isn’t a bad deal at all.

One way I do sneak in my Christmas sappiness fix is with books. I LOVE seasonal romances, both reading them and writing them. Happy ever after with a snowy twist is just the perfect thing to curl up with…until the dogs need out, the oven timer dings, and the Fed-Ex man shows up, at least. J