I was reminded of the simple comforts in life yesterday.Since Thanksgiving weekend, we’ve been on the go. We spent the weekend down in Maryland then returned home and within 48 hours, a second round of work began on the house. On Friday, we declared the work done and spent the weekend putting things back or cleaning where sawdust crept into cabinets and drawers. It also meant, we finally were able to begin decorating for Christmas and feeling like the holiday season finally arrived on Yarrow Road.By the end of Sunday, we had managed to decorate and put up the tree plus bake five batches of cookies, going from zero to dozens in a matter of hours. That felt good.Then Kate arrived Monday morning. We finished the tree, baked pies, did other odds and ends, and finally began to settle in with our traditional seafood and pasta meal. This was followed by the annual viewing of The Muppet Family Christmas before the girls got ready for Midnight Mass, where they were singing with the choir.Tuesday morning we slept in. I was up first and settled in with coffee to a peaceful home. Eventually Deb and Kate awoke and we arranged ourselves in the family room, ready for presents. Normally, we do the stuff under the tree and finish with the stockings but this year we reversed things so the final item in Kate’s stocking sent her on a scavenger hunt of the house before finding her big gift.The stars aligned this year, making it a veritable pop culture/geek fest. My brother sent me the second volume in the Looney Tunes Platinum set, while Kate gave me three new Oscar Peterson CDs. Deb then added the complete Twilight Zone on DVD, the 70th Anniversary edition of Citizen Kane, Superman PJs and then pairs of Superman and Batman argyle socks followed by Superman and Batman socks complete with capes. Tres chic!Even though we took a visit to Deb’s brother Jim and family, the majority of the day was spent at home. We sat and read or knit. We sipped coffee and munched on cookies. Every now and then, the three of us burst into action and prepped our dinner feast, but with all three of us working, things happened quickly and efficiently.We ate. I found a small enough turkey to allow us to have our traditional meal without an overwhelming amount of leftovers. We talked and ate and laughed. We cleaned up and sat, chilling, enjoy the peace and relative silence. We ate pie and hung around some more as I completed reading my second book in almost as many days. By 10 we were tired, but happily so, having had the very restful day of nothing we clearly needed.Recharged, we can complete the year as we each return to a light work week while still enjoying Kate’s company, the best present we could want.