I guess what it boils down to these days is that I would like for someone to cook for me on Thanksgiving and Christmas instead of me doing the cooking. It's not that I mind the cooking; it's just that I could use a change of scenery. I am so exhausted after the fall semester at school these last few years that all of the holiday festivities now tend to get pushed to the side as I finish up this essay or that essay and stress over oral presentations. I think that what I enjoy the most out of the whole holiday season these days is the Christmas music and the Christmas movies. I love the old Christmas Vacation with Chevy Chase and I love Black Christmas with Olivia Hussey and I love Miracle on 34th Street and I especially love the original HOME ALONE cause that was my youngest daughter's favorite movie for many years. I will miss my Kitty this Christmas (he was fourteen years old when he died this year and we had had him since he was 6 weeks old). Christmases should get better and better through the years but they have not. It seems harder every year to get everyone together since none of my children live at home anymore, and I think that I now seem to get very melancholy whenever people begin to mention that Christmas is right around the corner. But I will hang the evergreens and the red bows and the holiday fruit wreaths and decorate the biggest tree that I can get into the house because, after all, Christmas only comes once a year -- Thank goodness!


S Hamilton