Christmas Eve

[(written 12-23-09) I stand at the kitchen window, on the afternoon of Christmas Eve, preparing for an elaborate dinner. Outside everything looks so bleak and dreary; the colors of summer have long faded to grays and browns. Doubtful thoughts ring through my mind. "Will we even have a white Christmas?" The sky is a flat blue and spotted with dirty white clouds; however, there is not a slight sign of fluffy flakes. I continue washing some cherry tomatoes. The radio plays holiday music that we all enjoy. But it's hard to be in a real Christmas spirit when no winter wonderful exists. The sun sets early in December, but some daylight still lingers. I glance out the window again, trying to imagine a sparkling blanket covering the yard. But something floats by on the breeze and catches my eye. I pause and stare closer. Could it be? "No, don't get your hopes up," I say to myself. Then faintly specks of snow begin to fall through the air, pulled gently by gravity. "No way! It's snowing! This cannot be!" A dream come true! Now it is really beginning to look a lot like Christmas. I finish kitchen duties and retreat to the sofa with a hot mug of cocoa, a blazing hearth, a brightly decorated and illuminated evergreen, and a joyful heart that is bursting at the seams!]