Mark Knows It All

I have always overdone it at Christmas. At one point in our lives, my wife and I would put up five Christmas trees, including a brown one with orange lights and orange bird ornaments. It actually was my favorite tree, but a bit much. As the years have gone by, so has our motivation. Add that to being just plain too pooped to pop, we have cut back a lot. Of course, cutting back is a relative term…and for the most part our house still looks like it has barfed Christmas, not to mention a completely filled cabinet of Christmas CD’s! This year has been marked by significant losses in my family, the latest happening at 7:30 PM yesterday, Christmas Eve. It is hard for people from large families to “downsize.” As my family has died off, or moved away or moved on away from me by choice, this is the first year I face the holidays without an extended family…just us chickens, so to speak. I am fortunate that I have a great wife and son. I also have great in-laws who will be visiting us this Sunday