A Surfeit of Holiday

This December, my goal is a surfeit of holiday.

Not a surfeit of material goods ... we are blessed to have insurance, but with that, come deductibles; in our case, they add up to $6500. Without insurance, over half a million dollars, though, so hey, what's a little 6K among friends?

But my goal is to feast and feast upon festivities. Christmas shows out the wazoo, a Christmas book every night. Food on the carpet be damned, we are watching "Christmas Vacation" this evening.

We got our tree today. For the first time in our 16 years of marriage, we actually went and cut down our tree ourself.

Let me tell you ... straight trunks are not a natural thing.

But it looks beautiful and smells divine. "What will Little Warrior think?" we wondered, with images of needing to put a fence around the tree.

She doesn't see it. "Haven't we always had a tree in the living room?" she seems to say with disdain.

I realize, of course, that she is but merely waiting for the second we leave her alone in the living room. To that end, the tree is secured to the wall with triple lengths of monofilament. Of course, that doesn't mean she can't climb to the top and install herself as the angel.

Surfeit. 4 types of cookies, nay, 6. And how about an Italian Christmas dinner this year?

Because, as normal as I want this all to be, I can't ignore the voice that says, you don't know what next Christmas will be like. You don't know what 2007 will bring. Last Christmas, you were in innocence. But now you know. That you can't know.

So this Christmas ... my goal is surfeit.