Just for fun, I uploaded a few photos of the trees and ornaments on Facebook. I did not include Kitty. I discovered him this morning when I went out to my shipping table where I wrap all my sold items before shipping. You know – the “NO PET ZONE!” Yeah, he’s in one of the storage bins under the cabinets. I keep stuff like shipping air pillows, newspapers, envelopes and the like sorted in these. This particular bin was empty except for a couple of paper towel cardboard tubes.
Mom called earlier to say she’d had a great doctor visit yesterday, with her being taken off her BP meds. They’re trying to figure out if any of her pills is the cause of her ongoing dizziness. She sounded wonderful – and just in time for Christmas!
Today would have been Big Mama’s 111th birthday.
We’re picking up ribs from Frankie’s this afternoon. Not sure but we’ll see if we get back in time to go to the Oak Grove Candlelight Christmas Eve service. For the past few years we had a tradition of going out for a steak dinner, picking up the ribs (if needed), riding around to see Christmas lights, and coming back home to open our gifts.
This year is all different, but it’s ok. Missy is not anywhere close to here, living in FL; Lindsey is busy with her Christmas Eve shopping (she’s usually late as we know), so there’s no one left but me and Danny. We’re still going to have our steak dinner together but will wait until Melissa and Rob get here the week after Christmas; Lindsey and Don will meet up with us and the (now) six of us with hopefully start a new refurbished tradition.
Gifts are in shorter supply this year, mostly because everything is new for everybody. The girls are each still getting use to having their own households and accompanying bills, Dan just got his first Social Security retirement check (who knows how long they’ll last), and I’m no longer working as well, just keeping all the doctor co-pays up to date.
Gifts is really no big deal. It’s nice, but has gotten so commercial it’s taken all the fun out. To buy a gift as a sense of duty is no good either. The important thing is that we all come together in humility and respect, with genuine love in our hearts for each other. It’s more important to be able to say you are looking forward to spending time with family instead of dreading it. We give gifts all year long. Those unexpected moments are the ones we cherish the best. We may remember each Christmas lovingly, but we cherish the reality of knowing we are loved even on our most unlovely days. That’s the important part.
