Very Productive Morning!

Beau woke up in a bad mood and was very uncooperative: Morning Prayers - check

I forgot stuff from downstairs three times and had to make extra trips: Morning Exercise - check

Got halfway to daycare & had to turn around to get tuition envelope: Take time to enjoy scenery - check

Fell in the snow: laughed like a kid again - check

Turned on work computer only to find network down - Innovation - check

I wonder what the rest if this day holds?

30 Times

In 1981, my Hero and I put this ornament on our Christmas tree in our little one bedroom apartment in Arlington, TX.

It was new and so was our marriage. This year, we put our tree up and for the 30th consecutive year this was the first ornament we put on the tree.

It's not new anymore and neither are we. Time and wear have frayed a few of the threads but it's more beautiful than ever to me. For better, for worse; in sickness and in health; for richer, for poorer: every December we put the ornament on the tree.

It is an ornament of grace that reflects our love. I pray it graces our tree for many more Decembers.

Dear Santa, I can explain...

My mom was not one for holidays. As kids, we were lucky if the tree went up a week before Christmas and it always came down by the 26th... sometimes on the afternoon of the 25th.

We didn't have Christmas stockings. I didn't even know there was such a thing until I was almost grown. We hung our socks. Our nasty ol' used socks on the bookcase on Christmas Eve.

My dad made it funny though. He always had a plan. He was always going to figure out a way for Santa to put more in his sock than anyone else's. But every year, the same thing happened. We got up on Christmas morning and our socks had a little bit of candy and an apple or an orange and my dad's sock had a switch in it. We thought it was hilarious.

One year Dad had a really elaborate plan. He hung one of his long dress socks that had a hole in the toe. Then he put a box on the floor under the sock. He explained to us that Santa would start filling his sock and it would pour through the hole and into the box. By the time Santa realized what was happening, Dad would have a whole box full of goodies. The next morning, we all ran to the socks first to see if the plan worked. We howled with glee when we saw the usual switch... through the hole and resting in the box!!!

Now I have pretty Christmas stockings hung for my Hero and me, but I will never forget those socks and that switch.

Through Winter Windows

Trace of footfalls
pierce glistening white,
tokens of travellers.
Bygone origins,
trivial destinations.
Blinding reflections as
icy air sneaks through
unseen fissures.
Warmth beckons
and beauty is abandoned.