Childhood is a strangely-shaped box and once you clamber out you can never quite fit back inside. It’s like Narnia, except we start out in the magical forest, eating Turkish delight with talking animals. At some point, we wander away for a moment, only to grow up and spend most of the rest of our lives in the musty wardrobe, pushing coats around and wondering what to make for dinner.

However, I find that I can climb right back into Christmas every year with just as much youthful enthusiasm as ever. This week is when the workshop starts humming at our house: the box of holiday picture books comes out, we start hoarding confectioner’s sugar, and Santa’s omniscience is mentioned often -- both as a threat and a promise.

Shotgun season started on Monday, so remember your orange. At Thanksgiving, I listened to an old-timer describing how much the hunting scene has changed here; there are too many people now, too many houses. “West Tisbury is all built out” was how he put it, and when you go for a walk these days, you can’t help but see what he meant. I work very hard at not having feelings about this. Or at least having different, happier feelings.

Nevertheless, there are plenty of pickup trucks parked along the roadsides this week, so hunters are definitely having a go. The following Land Bank properties in West Tisbury are closed to the general public, just for the next two weeks: Blackwater Pond, John Presbury Norton Farm, Sepiessa Point Reservation and Waskosim’s Rock Reservation.

This week, before any more time passes, I want to give a shout out to some of the people most deserving of thanks: the marvelous West Tisbury police department--nicest in the world--and all of the West Tisbury School staff members who kindly and competently handle the school traffic each and every day. The situation has been extra dicey throughout the Covid era and I don’t imagine there are many schools where the administrators pull traffic duty twice daily in all weather.

Happy birthday to Tabitha Calheta and Gideon Smith. Happy Hanukkah to everyone.