Not this year

Normally about this time every year, I would be feeling like this guy, if not exactly looking like him. (I think I do have those shoes and that hat, to be honest.) We would be doing final preparations for Helen, Jay and the kids to arrive. Beds would be made with fresh linens, bathrooms scrubbed, floors swept and mopped. The tree would be set up but not decorated. Lucy wants to make sure that everyone helps decorate it on Christmas Eve. The makings of the first of several meals would be lying about in yet-unprepared bits in refrigerator and pantry. The cats would be wandering around sniffing packages and eying the tree suspiciously.

But this year Helen and Jay are off to Greece and obligations to in-laws and caring for babies and longer distances to be traveled have combined to keep the kids away. So today is more relaxed. I will probably still manage to get tangled up in some way, but at least it will just be Tom and the cats who witness my discomfiture.