How many days until Christmas?

In case you don't have a six-year old to ask you this question multiple times each day since before Halloween, the answer is 12 and that would be not including today. Since that is always his follow-up question, whether I am including the current day or not. If you are not reading this on Tuesday, subtract how many days after that from 12.

I know why he is excited. I can remember well wiggling in bed, listening to a Christmas record, trying to fall asleep so Santa would come but then also dissecting every noise in case somehow I'd faked him out and he'd arrived while I was still awake. Then, all you had to do was leap out of bed at an ungodly hour in darkness, pull your parents out of their bed, and then go discover what Santa brought you.

It's a little different on the other side. There is a lot more work as an adult. Someday, I want to become that mother that hums while decorating with the smell of baking cookies in the air. Then tucks her little ones in bed with a holiday story. Right now, I'm the mother that yells at her daughter to go to bed while sitting at the table with her son trying to help him finish creating his 3-D model of a flower he created that is due tomorrow that we both forgot about. As for the cookie smell, Ha. I had to carry the garbage out because a different sort of odor filled the air.

I also have this splitting headache but worse than anything else, I don't have a book to read. It is that awkward time of year when I don't feel like I can buy myself new books. My birthday is a week before Christmas and then, of course, there is Christmas. All those who love me and even those who barely tolerate me but feel obligated in some way to get me a gift, know I love books, all shapes, sizes and forms of them. So I get books, I get gift cards, and hopefully I'll get some Kindle credit. Because of that, I don't feel like I can buy books today or tomorrow or at least until my birthday. But even then I can't buy the ones I really want because I put them on my Christmas wish list. Sigh, high class set of problems but feeling stymied anyway.