This is my absolute favorite time of year. I love pretty much everything about Christmas celebrations: the lights, decorations, music, baking, and wrapping presents. Most of all, I enjoy getting together with friends and family, some of whom I may not have seen for a while.

I don’t love the cold weather, but I can live with it, especially since it doesn’t get that frigid here in North Carolina. I don’t love fighting crowds in stores and parking lots, so the advent of online shopping was a godsend for me.

But I thoroughly enjoy decorating – the house, the tree, the outside lights, etc. I’m not much of a cook, but I do like baking cookies, something I only do at the holidays.  (If I baked cookies all year long, I’d end up eating far too many of them! I have no will power when it comes to cookies.)

I like the challenge of the Christmas dinner, though these days I’m more of an executive, directing the various kids and grandkids in what to prepare and how to serve, than an actual chef.

Wrapping presents is a fun thing to do while keeping my eye on any of the many football games going on at this time of year.

The only Christmas prep I don’t really care for is cleaning the house to be ready for the invasion of family and friends. But it’s worth the work to have the company of all those beloved people.