Around this time when it seems customary to start thinking about end of year festivities (and, let's face it, like it or loathe it, it gets earlier each year that this comes into our awareness) I whip out one of Alice Walker's books to remind myself of her essay My Face to the Light: Thoughts about Christmas, Seed Catalogs like Paper Flowers which I find a soothing balm of a reminder that we get to choose how we mark this next turning of the wheel.