Here it is November how quickly the year has past seems like I was just watching 4th of July fireworks and here I am putting away the whole array of Halloween Decorations we put up every year. I got a call from an old professor of mine from my college years was surprised to hear he is 97 the realizing for a moment I'm 56 a long way from that freshman at 18 when I met the professor. He is off to florida for the winter and I sit here and make my Christmas plans. Along with my to do list I think of years past and how quickly time passes as I get older. My folks are gone many years now my nieces and nephews are grown some with their own children. Uncle Santa will visit them Christmas eve as he did years ago in their childhood years.I think that the fall of the year with the leaves falling the flowers gone we remember those gone from us now. For me the holiday preparations bring be back in time to my boyhood home and wonderful parents and family. Getting ready for Thanksgiving and Christmas was a big deal in my family as it is for me now today. Thanksgiving signaled the start of the season,my mother had the whole extended family over . Two tables strung together to accommodate all the guests. I can close my eyes and remember all the wonderful smells of turkey roasting and pies that filled the house the night before, that same scenario would be repeated on Christmas eve.I still have that dining table, that for more than 40 years was the place of the family celebrations. Sometimes I look at that table empty now and for a moment I see the whole family aunts uncles cousins and my folks sitting around it enjoying the company of family on the holidays.So now I plan for the memories in the making of the season ahead, getting the Santa suit just perfect for the many visit to come this season and creating for many I hope, reflections of happy times for them.