There is a meatball stuck under my entertainment center.

Good grief. Why is there a meatball stuck under my entertainment center?

I looked over at Samson, my 21-pound tomcat, who had been stretched out fast asleep in the recliner, but who was now looking up at me with wide, innocent eyes.

Don’t look at me like that, Big Boy. I know that meatball didn’t crawl there by itself.

There is one thing about housecleaning that I can’t stand – actually doing it, and this horrid meatball discovery came while I was enjoying watching the original “The Grinch Who Stole Christmas.” There’s nothing like the original cartoon. One Christmas, I bought a pair of cloth reindeer antlers at a pet store just so Sam could wear them like Max, the dog in “The Grinch.”

Needless to say, Samson would not suffer the indignity of wearing them, so the reindeer antlers got tucked away among my Christmas decorations. Each year when I drag them out, Sam just gives me a look as if to say, “Go ahead. Make my day…”

I love the holidays. It’s my favorite time of the year. Of course, I’ll say that until springtime arrives, and then the beach begins calling, and that becomes my favorite time of the year, too.

The one thing I can’t quite bring myself to do, however, is spend a bunch of money on Christmas sweaters and other things that you can only wear a few weeks out of the year. I have a couple of them, but that’s about it. Guess it’s time to drag them out.

It’s also time to start dragging out the Christmas tree. I have one particular friend who actually puts his Christmas tree up every year right after Halloween because he loves it so much. Another friend of mine usually leaves her Christmas tree up until Groundhog Day. Go figure.

By now, you’re probably thinking, “My, my—Regina has some strange friends.”

I’m actually looking forward to getting the tree up this year. Everybody is screaming about the recession and the fact that consumers won’t be buying as much this Christmas because people are either too afraid to spend too much, or they just don’t have it to spend in the first place. Well, welcome to my world, I say.

I learned about recessions a long time ago when I was a kid. One Christmas Eve, we didn’t have any cookies to leave Santa Claus, so I put out several apples and oranges. I felt bad about not having any cookies to leave out; after all, I wanted to give Jolly Ol’ Saint Nick something—so, my heart was in the right place.

And guess what I found in my stocking on Christmas morning? You guessed it. Those same apples and oranges I had left out for Santa. Talk about recession reality at a young age.

So, this year, Sam and I will enjoy our tree, our family and our friends, drink hot chocolate, watch “The Grinch” at least 42 times, and be thankful for every minute of life. Who really needs a bunch of presents anyway?

When the Grinch took everything the Who’s in Whoville had, they still celebrated Christmas morning because they had each other, and during this Christmas season, I say let’s draw that same lesson from a simple cartoon.

Wait a minute….Sam, what happened to the last can of “Who” hash?