So this is what our dining room looks like all dressed up for Christmas. It didn’t look like this a week ago, I’ll tell you! It was full of empty boxes and piles of clothes from Tracey’s walk-in closet as a result of our little redesign project. Having her closet all nice and organized meant that all the clothes she no longer needed had to go somewhere, so for the better part of six months that place was the dining room. Everyone who came in through the front door saw all the clothes and empty boxes and asked us if we were moving. One guy even asked us what our asking price was – he was that interested in buying our house on the spot!

But last weekend the twins got motivated, and within the course of an hour or two the dining room was restored to its normal function and prettied up with a tablecloth perfect for the holidays. On Thursday, the boxes full of clothes were picked up Big Brothers / Big Sisters where they will be put to very good use, I’m certain. The Christmas tree on the end of the table is perfectly positioned to make folks passing by our house think we have a huge tree in the front room. Hey, it does the job!

Today, I’ll be venturing out to buy enough wine to fill the wine rack (under the wall hanging, left) so that the room is truly ready for the kind of holiday cheer that lasts through the New Year (at least the first two weeks!). So the three of us will be having Christmas Eve dinner by Christmas light – an Omaha Steaks pot roast with roasted potatoes, vegetables, and shrimp cocktail as an appetizer, with a bottle or two of Greg Norman Estates Cabernet Merlot. Ought to be festive, no?

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Of course, over at my sister-in-law Tam’s apartment, the only creatures that will be stirring this Christmas Eve are her three rabbits (Butterscotch, Bailey, and Midget Lee), who could care less whether it is Christmas or not. But just so they do know, Tam has left the radio on to that station that’s been playing Christmas music since the day after Halloween. Lots of it is just absolute crap, the Christmas music equivalent of dishwater – just while I was over feeding the rabbits and doing my own Christmas wrapping in private I was “treated” to the likes of that insipid orgy of ’80s music self-indulgence, “Do They Know It’s Christmas?” (total rot), Wham!’s “Last Christmas” (soooo gay), Chuck Berry’s “Run, Run, Rudolph” (sooooo bad), and the Jackson 5’s “Santa Claus Is Coming To Town” (ugh). The absolute dregs of Christmas music. Out of respect for the audience that I believe frequents this blog, I ain’t linking to them; if your own Christmas tradition includes having your ears tortured, you can find them all on YouTube.

You’d think with all that time on their hands they’d find a way embed stuff that was truly interesting and uniquely seasonal – stuff like Dan Fogelberg’s “Same Old Lang Syne” (the fascinating story of which is here), Herb Alpert and the Tijuana Brass’s “Let It Snow, Let It Snow”, Let It Snow” (one of several standout tracks on their “Christmas Album”, BTW), The Beach Boys’ “Morning Christmas”, Mariah Carey’s “O Holy Night”, or Shawn Colvin’s “In The Bleak Midwinter”, Trans-Siberian Orchestra’s “Carol of the Bells”, Alison Kraus and Yo-Yo Ma’s “Wexford Carol”, or anything Christmas by Loreena McKennitt or Enya. But alas, that would be expecting far too much.

Of course, not everything I heard was crap, but when Whitney Houston’s overwrought “Do You Hear What I Hear”, the Eagles’ “Please Be Home for Christmas”, and The Carpenters’ “Merry Christmas, Darling” are the best of the lot – well, I’m glad the rabbits really don’t give a bunny hoot.

Still, decorating presents by Tam’s tree and the nativity scene we gave her as part of my parents’ old Christmas stuff when we cleaned out Dad’s apartment earlier this year was nice. The nativity scene goes back to my childhood and holds fond memories – me and my brothers would know Christmas was coming when Dad would drag out the card table and put the nativity scene and my mom’s Christmas card address box on it. So time passes as does life in its own way.

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What a difference from last year where the better part of Christmas Eve and Christmas Day were spent on the computer with my team trying to get “The Client Who Shall Remain Nameless” under some kind of control (something that would take the next four months to do, but I didn’t know it then). It was a miserable time – the worst I’ve ever known in my life. But let’s forget about the past, shall we? Let’s just enjoy what we have and the relative peace and normalcy of the present – after all, who knows where we’ll all be and in what situations we’ll each be in a year from now, right?

I do hope everyone’s Christmas preparations are all going well, wherever y’all may be.