Season's greetings

Despite decades of practice, Christmas still sneaks up and surprises the best of us.

- PAT MCDERMOTT

I hope this month’s column doesn’t startle you, but it might. Any minute now it will be Christmas! This year, like every other year since the MOTH (the Man of the House) and I – being young and foolish – decided we could manage five children and still enjoy life, Christmas has silently crept up while we were looking the other way.

Every year, I sit at the kitchen table and start making a list in case I have less people to shop for than last time. This has never worked because we have the same five kids we always had. I fossick about in my handbags in case an old hundred-dollar bill might be lurking in a corner. All I’ve ever found was the world’s largest collection of lipsticks, bus passes, tissues and grocery lists.