Since the third week of October, we’ve been in a bit of a tizzy due to my mom breaking her leg, meaning that we’ve been doing a lot of elder care. Then, add in the incredible excitement of That One Small Omission being published, and doing the final editing and proofing of The Phone Call, and I have to admit that my brain has been family and writing focused only.

So suddenly today, I realized that in the midst of all the craziness, we’d basically forgotten Halloween, and Thanksgiving was a lot of running between households taking care of loved ones. I hadn’t really even thought of the fact that Christmas is right around the corner. I guess now that our children are basically grown, I don’t look at the holidays quite the same was as years ago. But, today our grandchildren came over for a hike and lunch, and I got out holiday dinner napkins I made more than twenty-five years ago when our kids were little, and gave our oldest granddaughter, three years old, the one with teddy bears wearing Santa hats and dancing around Christmas trees. Her excitement looking at the napkin suddenly made me remember the joy, love and excitement of the season. So, tomorrow I will start getting decorations out!