'Tis the season:
some favorite Christmas memories so far 
Who doesn’t love a holiday. The decorations, the food, the extra time to connect with family and friends, it all comes together during this time of year. Following are some of my memories-in-the-making for Christmas 2015:
- Every year, I haul decorations out of my garage and it’s almost like a prelude to presents as I unwrap the lights, evergreens and wreaths. I always try to add a few enhancements annually. This year, I hung more than 80 ornaments on my front yard evergreens and added a spotlight for more illumination. It hasn’t hurt that temperatures have been unseasonably warm, with none of that pesky snow to obscure the fa-la-la-la-la.
- I also like to add a touch of whimsy inside and this year it’s a French hen stuffed toy that also doubles as a doorstop. Who can resist a chicken wearing a beret priced at 50 percent off.
- I love to collect the Spode Christmas tree patterned china, as a salute to my love of all things British (even though it’s made in China now).
- I’ve been a little too enthusiastic about holiday treats this year, with hard-to-resist gingerbread lattes and scones adding a few extra pounds. Ditto on chocolate crackle cookies and all things minty. Plus I’ve been accumulating goodies for my upcoming tea for the girls and plan to make cinnamon popcorn for my annual food gift. Oh well, there’s always lean January.

- Speaking of sweets, it was so heartwarming to buy some beautifully decorated boxes of Russian candy for my daughter -- boxes she had received as her only holiday gift during an early childhood in an otherwise bleak Russian orphanage.  The candy came from the Russian government back then but we found it online this year, from a store in New York. Her smile when it arrived was the only holiday gift I needed.
- Another early holiday gift came with the surprise arrival of my second daughter from Italy. A college student there, she hadn’t been home in nearly three years. And that meant we could organize the first-ever comprehensive four-generation family Christmas photo, with nine people ranging in age from 89 to two. The first shot was the keeper, but at least we got one that pretty much caught us all smiling. And it also became our first-ever family Christmas card photo.
- Now that I have the aforementioned two-year-old granddaughter, I have been buying her too many toys. I am unapologetic. I want to see her have the same joy I did when unwrapping lots of fun stuff on Christmas morning.
- I’m reading Christmas themed books right now, such as A Catered Christmas Cookie Exchange, and watching the wacky movie families of the Kranks and the Griswolds fumble their way through home for the holidays.
- That’s about it for now, as the anticipation builds for the arrival of Santa. I hope he can find a chimney for access to my electric fireplace. There also may be a lack of snow.

Ho, Ho, Ho.