Here's what Kaboodle likes to do every morning. She shares my lightbox routine by sitting on top of it. Usually she's lying flat out like a lizard drinking. Warmth pours out of the switches on top that turn the lights on. Once Dusky realizes that I've got the lightbox on, he'll come in the room, jump up there, too, and bully her off it it but he hasn't been doing that lately. Maybe he finally realized that it just isn't that comfortable on his bigger belly. I am having a good day, a happy day. Maybe it's from the bright, bright sunshiny day outside and all the sunlight bouncing sharply off the still snow-covered ground. Mabye it's from having gone shopping at Wal-Mart and from browsing through all the Christmas aisles and picking up a few decorations. Shopping does give one a bit of a boost. Maybe it's from having found a tree of decent size and comparable price and am looking forward to decorating it over the weekend. Maybe it's from the vibes I get from this house, the family vibes, the happy vibes, the Christmas seasons that were shared in this house. I haven't been this infected about Christmas since my first Christmas with Bill in 1995. Certainly, last year in that apartment no Christmas spirit hit me. We got a tree last year from a cut-your-own place and it took me two weeks to get it decorated. I had no inspiration at all in that apartment. But being in a house, this house where the landlord said it was a happy house, a Leave It To Beaver house, must be engaging me to savor Christmas traditions. I want to decorate the whole place up. This year I feel like I want to enjoy the decorations I have. I have declared this weekend Decoration Day! I've got a start on it with the two poinsettias I bought. Nice big 6" inch potted ones that were only $1.99. I'm going to give one to Marilyn, Bill's fellow worker and Canadian. When we went clothes shopping two weeks ago, she had been in a real homesick mood and had looked at poinsettias while we were at Meijer but she didn't buy one. She said she was having a hard time getting into the Christmas mood. Maybe she didn't like the $5 price tag on those. They were the same size as the babies I got today. She doesn't have a car so she can't get around to all the neat places that I can. Like Home Depot today. Where I got the tree and the poinsettias. I'm trying to get my in-the-store Christmas shopping done now so that I don't have too much exposure to all the Christmas hype and constant loud blaring of Christmas music. I don't know how those store workers can stand it. I think I would start hating Christmas songs after a week of it eight hours a day. I've noticed that when I go into the stores too much during December that I get overwhelmed and kinda nauseated from all the overloaded displays of "gift ideas." I'm also clairsentient which means I catch the vibes of people around me. Too many people with not enough money, or too many people concerned with trying to impress others with the important gift they are buying, or too many people aimlessly wandering the aisles trying desperately to think of or spy a present they feel obligated to buy, well, it gets to me. It's more draining to me to be in the stores because of this crush of people and their anxieties going on. What I mean is that there are more of them this time of year so it's like a big tidal wave coming at me instead of a calm ripple lapping at the shore like the other times of year. It will be much more pleasant to finish up my Christmas shopping by ordering the rest online from the comfort and quiet of my computer room where I can put a CD of specially picked Christmas songs on to play, and I can turn it off when I get tired of it. Sound good to you, too? Hope you are having a good day today, too. It is good to be alive today.