A Christmas Awake...

Do you know what I love about Christmas? The fact that you see people out and about. People that you never see at any other time of year. But around this time they somehow magically appear and all go shopping at the same time. Every walk of life, every nationality, age and the whole of the socioeconomic strata are there...just shopping. Not the "Black Friday" perversion of Christmas, but the days in between...where everyone is simply coexisting...and smiling at each other. I listen to the conversations and exchanges that are just a little bit kinder...a little bit more patient. They are almost like a special species of animal, these holiday shoppers, that are brought to life only by the December snow, the lights and the Christmas fudge...I watch them, with almost scientific fascination.

Today at the store, I saw my mom's car in the parking lot and, not having seen her yet, grabbed a full box of Peanut Butter Twix, a Blackberry Hostess Pie, Twinkies and two pints of Häagen-Dazs in hopes that she would see me sneaking around with the overstuffed box of naughties and raise an eyebrow or two (hee-hee-hee!!!)...it worked! HAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!! This same mom is teaching me to REALLY play the piano. I am so grateful to her.

I am now snuggling down with what I believe may end up being the favorite book of my life, "A Christmas Carol" (I feel a particular urge for Dickens as of late...I am the same age this year as he was when he wrote the novella). Truly, Dicken's words fill up my soul like no other; they do not appeal to my rebellious nature like Joyce, or any fits of romanticism like Austin or Charlotte Brontë , but to the truest yearnings of the spirit with which I came to this earth, about the world, and easing suffering somehow.
God bless me to do anything half as good with my life.
I will perhaps leave the better part of the reading to tomorrow, it will be Christmas Eve after all. And reading A Christmas Carol on Christmas Eve is like blowing out your own birthday candles...*your favorite wish*...on your favorite birthday cake.

I may not go to sleep, I would like to watch Miracle on 34th Street, too. I would rather not sleep anyway, I could miss something. I like staying awake during Christmas... and a Christmas awake is better than any sleep.