The romantic energy about at Christmas really can't be denied. Your every Christmas may not be romantic, but romance is there to be had, just around every corner. Christmas lights and candles, yummy wine and delicious treats, romantic holiday music, and mistletoe.

I'm not typically a "bling" kind of girl. I drive a five-year-old Honda Civic. I don't get manicures or pedicures. I've never been to a spa, tanning bed, or visited a professional masseuse. I don't wear a lot of makeup (much less worry about the difference between a "day" and a "night" look). I wear my hair long, so I only go to a salon about four times a year for upkeep. I don't remember the last time I bought an item of clothing for myself that cost over $30 (I've been downsizing and getting rid of things, not adding to what I already have). And I go through spurts with wearing jewelry. Sometimes I'll wear it regularly, and then I'll go weeks without wearing anything other than an occasional necklace to work. I've said on multiple occasions that my two sisters are much more glamorous than I. Just recently I told my older sister that I almost always wear pants to work, so I wear the same pair of black shoes pretty much every day. (It's easy; I keep them under my desk and then I wear my sneakers whenever I leave the office.) I believe she was genuinely appalled.

Once upon a time, you could give a child a football (if he was a boy) or a new dolly (if she was a girl) for Christmas, and everyone was happy. Easy peasy. Times have changed, and although in many ways for the better (now girls can get footballs and boys can get dolls, and everyone has a lot more options), something terrifying has befallen today's parents. It's The Horrible Toy.

What is it that inspires your gratitude this year?

My misadventures in the kitchen are legendary, so legendary in fact that my family has just come to expect them as the inevitable fact of my cooking. Let's see there was the time I cooked the turkey with the plastic wrapped neck and gizzards still inside. But who hasn't done that, right? Let me see a show of hands. Thank you, I feel better.

I got an e-mail from Denise the other day asking me if I would write the lead in for unusual family traditions. I didn't know if I should be flattered or offended. Is it THAT obvious that I have an unusual family? Maybe she read the post I wrote a while back about how we used to play "Let Me Clear My Throat" by D.J. Kool every night to signify bath time. Possibly she knew that my husband and I always give each other anniversary cards that are entirely inappropriate for the occasion, and often in languages that we don't speak, or maybe somebody told her that every Easter I pull out the little cardboard animals out of the bottom of the PAAS Easter egg dye kits and write phrases from the movie "Deep Cover" on them and then mail them to my brother (back when we lived at home we used to just hide them in each others bedrooms).