Ho Ho Ho

It sure doesn't feel like Christmas Eve here in the Mid-South.

Of my 62 Christmases, this will be only the third I've spent outside Indiana. The other two were in the 1980s when my parents wintered in Florida.

As odd as it feels, I can honestly say that I'd rather be here today than in frigid, snowy Thorntown, Ind.

As I write this, it's 27 degrees with a wind chill of 14 in Thorntown, going to a high today of only 33. In stark contrast, it's sunny this morning at our place between Goobertown and Buck Snort and the temperature is 30 (no wind chill), heading for a high today of 51.

It feels so little like Christmas that we didn't bother with a tree or any decorations this year. I'm not a big Christmas tree guy anyway. When I was single living the life of a rogue elephant in my apartments and condo, I never bothered with a tree or decorations. And after Maria and I got married, I left the tree decorating to her and her kids, particularly because her ex was an extreme control freak when it came to Christmas trees and never allowed her to touch the lights on their trees.

We got into the habit of driving over the the Dull Tree Farm (the family's name is Dull and their trees are anything but dull) north of Mechanicsburg, Ind., and cutting our own. The Dulls are old friends of Maria's and we became their unofficial photographers. The Newfie pictured here with red velvet antlers belongs to a Newfoundland club from Ohio who bring their dogs over to Dulls' the first Saturday in December to pull tree-laden carts in from the fields for customers.

Maria and I have already done our mutual gifting. We agreed that the 41" Sharp Aquos HDTV we bought the weekend after Thanksgiving would be our present to each other.

So Christmas morning will find us holed up in our cozy new home in the woods with our dogs.

Of course, I'd love to be with my sons and their families, but since Sean and Ruth are in Portland, Ore., and Steve, Nicky and Lisa are in Las Vegas, that's not feasible this year. Maybe we should all drop in on Steve in Vegas next year for a Christmas in the desert.

Merry Christmas to everyone. May you get everything you really want and may every gift you give be exactly what the recipient hoped for.