I’m waiting for the smell to kick in.

I’ve read that smell invokes stronger memories than any other sense. I believe this is true and I think it’s a good thing because it’s the only sense that still works well.

Actually that’s not true, my sight is better now than when I was in my twenties. I was born with a cataract on my left eye. I never thought too much about it until it got cloudy, when I was in my early forties, and I had it removed. A small piece was left inside and a week after the first surgery, my doctor had to go back and remove the small piece. For that week I came as close to perfect vision as I’ll ever have in this life. It was wonderful; I felt like I had bionic eyes. I did some serious looking that week–maybe even some reckless eyeballing. I even heard that bionic sound effect that Steve Austin used to hear whenever he focused on anything, but that’s another blog. The second surgery left me with improved vision, but not quite as good as the first surgery. Since I’m near-sighted, I can now read small print without my glasses, which really impresses all the previous non glasses wearers who have to amplify now.

Anyway, I digress. The reason I’m talking about smell today is because we’ve put up our Christmas tree. A lot has changed over the years when it comes to holidays, but I still require a live tree. It’s about a third as large as the trees we had when the kids were young, but that’s just fine with me. In fact, it was my idea to downsize. I love the lights and ornaments and everything related to Christmas, but nothing pleases me more than the smell of fresh pine. That smell mixed with the smell of a turkey dinner baking, the faint scent of Old Spice men’s cologne, and the unique scent of a new plastic doll is the smell of Christmas for me. That combination could transport me back to age 5or 6 sitting on my daddy’s lap playing with my new doll on Christmas morning.

I can’t wait for the tree to start smelling like Christmas.