Christmas is near, and most of us are staying home looking for something to keep us busy. If you're looking for holiday stories, here is one I wrote. I save ideas just in case some day I might be able to write a whole story. I'd never paid much attention to the bucket list idea until I was in Walmart one day. I was in the restroom, trying to the the automatic soap dispenser to put soap in my hand. After several swipes under the dispenser, a shopper came up beside me and used the dispenser by her. I asked, "How did you get soap? I can't make this dispenser work." It tickled the woman. She swiped her hand again and said, "Just like this." She had a hand full of foamy soap, but the procedure she used looked to me about like what I had been doing. Oh, well, I'd try again. I swiped and had a handful of soap. The woman smiled. "There you go. You can take that off your bucket list." We both laughed, and she disappeared. Suddenly, I'm looking at myself in the mirror and wondering why I looked like I should have a bucket list. So when I wanted to write a story, I went through my saved ideas, came up with one and still mulling over I should have a bucket list, I came up with this story. The poem was a Christmas gift from a nephew that I had saved. I felt it went along with this story. You might find this book different than most Christmas stories, but I think you will like it. Paperback books are found at Amazon and Barnes and Noble in 12 font and large print. The ebooks are in Kindle, Nook, and smashwords.com.

When Leona Krebsbach found out just before Thanksgiving she didn't have long to live, she took charge of her life like she had always done since the doctor thought she might die in a month. She bought a small spiral notepad and titled it Christmas Bucket List. On each page of the notepad, Leona listed something she needed to get done while she still had time. Details like her funeral headed the list. She didn't want to leave anything for her daughters to have to worry about after she was gone. She kept her illness a secret until after Thanksgiving when she had all but one thing completed on her bucket list. Finally, she was as ready to die as she was ever going to get. She called her daughters and invited them to a tea party. Now was the time to tell them. At her age with a long life behind her, Leona Krebsbach wished she felt better prepared mentally for the end. She should have been ready to go, because she would be with her beloved Clarence. If only she had managed to atone for that one regretful time that happened so many years ago. If that didn't weigh on her, she knew her mind set would be different, but she couldn't change the past. Even if she wanted to, she didn't have enough time. She reasoned her bucket list wasn't designed to take care of that one regret unless a miracle happened to change Leona's Christmas Bucket List.