A Santana Christmas

No, not the band, the peculiar Southern California winds. They've been blowing fierce all week long, mostly drying everything out and making messes of highways and trees with insecure root systems and the houses and cars unfortunate to be under them. The winds seem to be calming and last night the weatherman threatened rain sometime in the near future. But here it is Christmas Eve and the sky is a limitless blue, not a cloud. And tonight, we'll have our Christmas Eve supper at a fancy restaurant, then come home to drink aperitifs and open presents and get sillier as the aperitifs flow and the wrapping paper piles up. Tomorrow, Christmas dinner at Mom's and the season will be done...at least until New Year's.

I've been so distracted since fall with medical tests and moving and failing cars and writing projects that the season snuck up on me. I can hardly believe it's come and nearly gone. I feel as if I'm waking from a Rip Van Winkle sleep. Fortunately, I went into Automatic Present Acquisition Mode, so everyone's taken care of and I didn't have to make any last minute dashes to the mall.

So Happy Holidays to one and all. Joy in the season, however you celebrate. Even if you don't—joy.