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Wrap it up a day early

Wreath? Check. Tree? Check. Cards? Check. I’m not doing badly — considering there are still a dozen days to go. Granted, I never got around to making more than two batches of cookies, and I didn’t even think about fruitcake.
Barbara Gunn
Barbara Gunn

Wreath? Check. Tree? Check. Cards? Check.

I’m not doing badly — considering there are still a dozen days to go.

Granted, I never got around to making more than two batches of cookies, and I didn’t even think about fruitcake. And true, there are still a couple of gifts to be mailed, which makes me wonder if they’ll arrive in time.

The turkey has been ordered and the eggnog purchased, but the bulk of the shop has yet to be done. Stollen, potatoes and cranberry sauce? Still on the to-buy list.

I’m not doing badly at all. The presents have been bought — for the most part — but most of the wrapping remains.

Stuffers? Pretty much. As always, they’re a mix of the goofy and the practical. You know. Shaving cream, notepads and toothpaste alongside whoopee cushions, bobble head dolls and fake scratch and win cards.

Still a little to be done, but really, I’m not doing badly.

This year, as in years past, the target finish line is not the 25th of December. It’s the morning of the day before.

By the 24th — make that, the evening of the 23rd — I want to be set for Christmas. When other folks are scrambling to assemble their children’s race-car sets or whipping up their candied yams or standing 40 deep at the grocery store, I’d rather like to chill.

A dozen days left? Nope, just 11 for me.

On Christmas Eve, I’d rather like to do nothing more taxing that reclining by the fire.

On the 24th, when most people will be driving around in circles at the mall and delivering poinsettias to the babysitter and frantically trying to figure out where they hid that gift for their significant other, I want to sit and admire the tree.

Call it the catch-your-breath day, the day before the show begins, the day after the weeks of planning.

There’s still stuff to be done, but I’m not doing badly at all.

I’ll be tackling my list with my eye on the prize: a day to do nothing at all.