Today is a dreary, rainy day but a warm one. When I woke up, the first thing in my head was my list and what I have left to do. The house is all decorated so I just have to finish the tree and make a batch of fudge. Yesterday, when I was bringing up tubs of house decorations, I brought up a tub filled with Boxes. When I opened the tub to check the boxes, I found only empty boxes. I didn’t return the decorations to their boxes last year. I laughed. 

One of the ornaments for my tree is one of the special ornaments my mother insisted we not touch in case we broke them. The ornament is a big, colorful ball. I always put it toward the top of the tree just as my mother did. I’m very careful.

When I was a kid, school always dragged around Christmas time. We did a few Christmas activities like coloring Nativity Scenes and making cards for our parents which helped pass the time. My nativity scenes were heavy on the brown, but the hay was yellow and Mary always wore blue. I remember getting a box of hard candy from the nuns, I think, on the last day before vacation. The boxes were cardboard and had white strings to hold to carry the boxes. I still have a box, and I hang it on my scrub pine. 

I put my nativity set on the table in the living room. It is an old one very similar to the one we had when I as a kid. My sister has that now. They both have chalk figures. When I opened the box yesterday, I noticed the camel was missing its nose. I found the nose and glued it back on. I bought the set at a church fair even though a few key figures were missing. I had to buy some sheep and the Wise Men. I easily found two Wise Men, but Balthazar, the Black Wise Man, was difficult to find. I hunted on E-Bay and finally found one. When he arrived, I put him with his fellow travelers. This Balthazar is about half a height taller and a lot bigger than the other Wise Men. I never checked his size. I was just happy to find him. Every time I place Balthazar I laugh.