Trim you! Trim me!!
Every who down in who-ville like Christmas a lot…
Hang on, wrong story…
“One Christmas was so much like another in those days beyond the sea-town corner now…”
Wait…that’s the wrong story too…
I kid, I jest, I make fun. Though in all honesty it’s very difficult to believe that tonight is Christmas Eve. It’s come so quickly. I suppose it’s obvious that I’ve been having some difficulty with Christmas this year; it’s taken a long time for me to get into the spirit of it.
I’ll admit that the eggnog they’ve serving on the ship helps, even if it is foolishly expensive per glass. December is one of the few months of the year where I don’t pinch my pennies. The other one being October, because of my birthday 
Normally Christmas Eve is a busy one on the ship, because normally we’re at sea. But today we’re in port. As I look out my window at the sparkling blue water and the sailboats drifting lazily alongside us in the harbor, it’s still difficult to believe it’s December. December to me usually means cold and rain, but the last two years it’s been equatorial heat (last year I was in Brazil), and balmy ocean breezes.
But December it is, and this evening I will redecorate my room (some of it had to come down so my cabin steward could clean everything for inspection), put on my Christmas carols and shimmy into my full length black formal. I’ll spend half of the hour’s prep time I have trying to do something with my hair, and end up rushing down the I-95 at double my normal speed so that I’m on time for the crew Christmas concert. And as I stand up there with a hundred or so other people, most of whom will be singing off key or not singing at all, I’ll be hearing the scratch of a King Singer’s Christmas album in the back of my head…and I’ll recite the sermon from the Bishop’s Wife before I go to sleep.
If I go to sleep.
More likely I’ll spend an entire internet card’s worth of time online, and a phone card’s worth of time on calls, talking to everyone from home. Making sure everyone has their Christmas cards (or at least as close to a Christmas card as I can manage, and those of you that already have one – know that I really did put several hours worth of effort into designing it, even if it isn’t on paper and sealed with a kiss).
And, as Dylan Thomas says, “I will whisper some words to the close and holy darkness”…and I shall sleep.
And it will come…without packages boxes or bags….