Holiday

This week begins the 6 week long holiday season. I say six weeks because it begins now with Thanksgiving and ends the second week in January. In between is Thanksgiving, my father's birthday, Taylor's birthday, Christmas eve, New Year's Eve, Buddhist First Light, Frankye's birthday and finally, Lori's Birthday on January 9th. Whew! But no need to get frazzled about it. I love the holidays and I'm sure Frankye and I will enjoy these holidays very much.

This week we will travel to Delray Beach to spend Thanksgiving with my family. My sister, her husband, my niece and her son, my nephew and his girlfriend, my brother and his family, a whole bunch of people I love and don't get to see enough will be there. Friday we will see Lin and Clio and have plans to spend a good deal of time at the casino in Hollywood. Saturday has not yet been firmed up but Brenda leaves that day so I'm sure I'll be with her til then, and then Franlye and I will leave early Sunday morning. We are staying at a motel so there will be refuge from the masses of people, mostly for Frankye. The best part for me? Spending time with Brenda. She's just about the best medicine around for me and I miss her. I haven't seen her since April of 2004 and I will just soak her up.

This Christmas, Frankye and I will host our 4th annual Christmas eve dinner. I haven't decided on the menu yet but I'm leaning toward southern rather than Italian. I may poll some of the ten guests and see what their preference is before settling on it. I enjoy the preparation for this evening as much as I enjoy the event. It's made the holiday much more enjoyable since we began celebrating in this way. It gives us a chance to do something else on Christmas day and that usually means going to a movie or just staying in and relaxing.

I like the holiday season and it is upon us. The only thing that throws me about it is that it came around so fast. Another year gone by -- and so quickly!