Right now, at this very moment I am procrastinating. Wapping paper and tape is on the table gifts are upstairs . . . waiting for me to bring them downstairs. I need tags and a pen . . . my kingdom for a pen! Cookies are in the oven.

The whole idea here was to mix up a batch of cookies and while each tray was in the oven wrap a few gifts. Well the cookies are almost done and not one gift has been wrapped yet.

What does this have to do with missing my Aunt Betty. Everything. For all the years my kids were growing up Aunt Betty spent Christmas Eve with us. She would show up early in the day ready to help. First task at hand was to make sure we had everything we needed for Christmas dinner. This would usually involve her watching the kids while I made the last run to the overly packed and picked over grocery store and then a covert trip to K-Mart or somewhere similar because I realized I was short on stocking stuffers. Where was Instacart when I was young and frantic.

Then dash away, dash away, dash away home with a pizza for dinner. No seven fishes for us. We needed to get the kids all spit and polished for Mass. After church was the annual reading they were most interested in . . . the Night Before Christmas and finally, thank you baby Jesus, bed time.

Once they were snuggled in their bed with visions of the latest greatest toys dancing in their heads the work began in earnest. Gifts came out of all the hiding spots and were separated into piles. Then it was determined what gifts got wrapped and which ones would be on “display” for the immediate WOW factor. This is where Betty would shine. Each child had a specific color-coded wrapping paper lest someone should get an incorrect gift. Aunt Betty’s nimble fingers went to work helping me wrap it all. What would have otherwise been a chore became a joy. We talked the entire time.

When everything under the tree looked perfectly lovely, we started the prep for Christmas dinner. The chopping, dicing, sauteing and prepping wrapped up around midnight . . . just in time for a sherry for me, an apricot brandy for Aunt B and midnight Mass on TV. Yes, a second Mass.

All of these traditions lasted for many years. My kids are grown now with kids of their own. Aunt Betty left us in 2009, but the memories will live forever in our hearts.

I guess I better go wrap.