Twelve Ways of Christmas

Making a list of this year's gifts

Christmas on Sanibel Island

To hear the related 5-minute audio file that I uploaded today as my Morning Journal flash briefing for Alexa devices, please click on the play button:

Joy to the Island

1. As I type, my feet love the rolling pressure of an electric massager.

2. Our friend and neighbor John helped me release the Rice and Squash Bombe from its hot baking bowl. We guided it to the counter and flipped it onto the cutting board without mishap. Et voilà! A flawless main course for our vegetarian banquet.

3. A boy ran behind me with a green kite just as I took a tripod photo for this post.

4. I know Darlene and I got cross with each other while prepping for lunch. But this evening I can’t for the life of me remember what we tangled about.

5. She loved Water, Water—the new book of poems by Billy Collins that I gave her.

6. My friend Kes Woodward texted me these lines from “Directions,” one of his favorite Billy Collins poems:

   how we who will soon be gone regard
   the entities that continue to return
   greener than ever, spring water flowing
   through a meadow and the shadows of clouds
   passing over the hills and the ground
   where we stand in the tremble of thought
   taking the vast outside into ourselves.

7. We played pickleball in the gloaming with John, Mark, and Roy down the street. I wore new, red workout pants, a gift from my sister in Massachusetts.

8. Amazingly, I got more than 7 hours of sleep last night. It might have been the dumb but sweet Disney movie we watched on Christmas Eve, Noelle.

9. Watching grandsons Jake and Ryan hopping down their hallway this morning on blow-up dinosaurs, a FaceTime feed from Up North.

10. Helping my Virginia friends Ben and Carol with their Christmas card. I learned enough about Canva (awesome program) to create three digital cards of my own.

11. Chopping butternut squash and shallots before dawn, while Deb and Darlene were still sleeping. I listened to music by Laufey on the Echo Show and glanced often at our tree by the big window.

12. After I post this, I will join Darlene in the TV room to watch the end of “Miracle on 34th Street,” her favorite Christmas movie. Mine might be “Carry-On,” but I’ve only seen it once. Time will tell.