“Well, it couldn’t have been any worse that putting together my brother’s grocery store.” I countered.  “We had to glue labels on every single can of vegetables.  And the cardboard store kept collapsing.”  I handed Phil the star and watched as he placed it on
the top of the tree.  As the lights twinkled around us, we held each other as Phil whispered, “Don’t worry, we’ll be building dream houses and grocery stores again some day, I promise.”
   I shook off the sadness that threatened to overwhelm me and began to prepare our traditional Christmas Eve dinner of roasted lamb.  Moments later, I heard Phil’s key in the front door. I pasted on my most festive smile and hurried to the living room.
   “Hi honey, I’m home.”  Phil grinned and enveloped me in his arms. 
   “Merry Christmas.”  I kissed him, and then busied myself with picking up the Christmas cards that were still lying on the floor.  “Did you have a good day?” 
   “Sure.  The crew worked until about noon, and then I treated them all to pizza.  I would have been home sooner, but I had some last minute shopping to do. How was your day?” 
   It was quiet for a moment and I realized Phil was watching me carefully.
   I shrugged nonchalantly.  “Oh, you know.  The bookstore was full of men who were doing their Christmas shopping at the last minute.”  I gave Phil a genuine smile.  In the eight years that we had been married, I had never been able to convince Phil to shop before Christmas Eve.  He claimed it was his own special tradition. 
  Phil walked into the living room and said, “I was surprised that you don’t have the tree lit.  Since you are the “Spirit of Christmas Present”, I figured you would have turned it on
as soon as you came home. Is anything wrong? ”   Phil flipped the switch and the tree sparkled with colorful lights and Peanuts characters. 
    “Oh, I guess I was so focused on making dinner I didn’t think about it.”  I could tell that Phil wasn’t convinced, so I quickly led him into the kitchen where the aroma of lamb was certain to distract him.  Probing questions gave way to making gravy, and I was able to push my grief aside for a while longer.