December 26 – “He may have found a home”

We had about as quiet a Christmas Day as I can remember yesterday.  Chris and I exchanged gifts with just the two of us.  Mom slept in until around ten or so.  Then we just lolled around the house waiting for the cold front to get here.  I read the Hobbit.  Chris read her new book, Heat Wave by Richard Castle.  Yep.  The same Richard Castle from the TV show.  Same book based on New York City police detective Kate Beckett.  Chris said she really likes Kate Beckett a lot better than Nikki Heat, though.  I guess Castle muddied her up some so the book would appeal to a greater subsection of the masses.  Chris even remembered the case he was writing about from one of the TV episodes.  I didn’t get to try out my gifts yet.  It was too cold to mow the grass and use my new leaf blower with handy vacuum attachment.  It was too hot at the time to wear my new long sleeved t-shirt.  But I do have that on now.  The cold front arrived with a vengeance.  High winds, too.  Blew down our Christmas lights in the front, so I’ll have to go out there today and hook them back up.  Weatherbug on my computer is reading 33 degrees.  That’s some serious cold in Galveston.  No snow, though.  We had our once-every-50-years snow fall.  On a Christmas Eve just a few years ago, as I recall. 

The array of gifts I managed to scrape together for my bride may seem small, but they came from my heart.  I already mentioned the Nikki Heat book.  She got a long sleeved tshirt, but it doesn’t fit.  There’s a trip to Target for a return.  The Precious Moments figurine she liked.  I wrapped up some swing hardware bolts for her.  She has been wanting to put up a swing in the back yard for the grandkids, but we haven’t figured out yet the best approach.  Now we can take it to the next level.  I didn’t get the actual swing or chain yet.  We are pondering whether the old rocking horse can be salvaged somehow.  And there was a carving, of course.  This year that creature that came forth from the block of wood did so in honor of the Bearded Lady Soap Factory.  I carved … Jim Stone.  Well, not exactly.  I did try my hand at a goat, though.  And for those of you who have seen my vision of a goat in one of the Visual Verses, I think I made you all proud.  How could I not?  Couldn’t get any worse, right?  Chris saw fit to add it to the manger scene I carved, so if he can see fit not to butt Mary or Joseph or the donkey or the cow or even the little lamb, then he may have found a home.

And now the wait begins.  Josh and his crew are due in this afternoon.  I’m sure Kel and his guys will be down soon after.  And how can Cailyn resist the chance to hang out with the guys?  The quiet is doomed.

Zephaniah 3:17 says, “The Lord your God is with you, he is mighty to save.   He will take great delight in you, he will quiet you with his love, he will rejoice over you with singing.”

Father, thank you for the quiet.  Now bring on the family.  Amen.