December 26 – “On Christmas morning”

Christmas morning.  Waited until 9 to send texts all around to say Ho Ho Hooooo.  Got some responses but only one right away.  Everybody else was sleeping in or opening gifts, I guess.  Uncle Jerry was up at 9, though.  Of course, I think he's in New Jersey.  Wouldn't that be 10 there?  Finally began receiving text-ual greetings from all over the place, and not just from those I sent to.  So this is the new way to do Christmas cards, right?  Wait until Christmas morning and text everybody you can think of.  I like it.    Chris and I decided to open a gift or two for each other.  Chris opened her annual desk calendar gift and the carving.  I opened my underwear and a movie.  Second package of underwear of the year.  I'm all set.  I thought we would save the rest for Tuesday when we have our family Christmas with our kids and grandkids, but over the course of the day she would stop what she was doing and say, "OK.  It's time for you to open another present."  I made her follow suit, so we had Christmas all day long.  It was kind of fun.  Last year we waited to do anything gift-wise until everyone was here, and Christmas just wasn't Christmas.  Besides, we had our very own "child" for Christmas – Mom.  We got her a shelf for her closet so she could organize it a little better.  It was fun bringing in the big box, Chris on one end and me on the other.  Mom was sitting in the rocking chair by my desk doing some crocheting.  We walked right past her without saying anything, put the box on her chair in the other room, and waited.  Sure enough, here she came.  "What was that big box you two were carrying?" I told her to go sit down in her chair and I would tell her.  Well, she could see that wasn't going to work, so she sat down on the couch.  We told her Merry Christmas and said it was for her.  She was very excited.  Just like a little kid.  It doesn't matter if you're four or eighty-four, you can still get that sparkle in your eye when you realize it's Christmas morning.  Of course once she got it open and we explained what it was, I got to put it together.  Again, just like we used to have to put something together for one of the boys every year.  It's kind of fun having a child in the house again.    Our outside Christmas lights went out on Christmas Eve because of all the rain and high winds.  On Christmas morning they were drooping from the eaves after being blown around by the wind (40 mph gusts).  I decided to put them back up in the cold.  Hey, it's Galveston, and 43 degrees is cold.  I reattached the icicle lights that were hanging, but when I got to the end of the house, I had about a foot extra.  Odd.  I swung it around and had to redo the whole set up.  Did I mention it was cold?  That mission accomplished, I went around back to push all the reset buttons on the outside outlets.  And then I went to the front and plugged them in.  The tree and deer that belong to Nathan and April lit up.  I think the Precious Moments Mary and Joseph and Baby Jesus lit up.  But no icicle lights.  I walked around to the front again and began my inspection.  Oops.  The lights were not plugged in to the extension cord.  And the plug was … about 12 inches away from the cord.  There was the extra foot.  It had shifted.  So I had to redo it again.  And if I haven't mentioned it yet, it was cold.  But success.  The lights lit up and Christmas was secure once again.  Let's watch a schmaltzy Christmas movie and drink some hot chocolate.   Luke 2:36-38 says, "There was also a prophetess, Anna, the daughter of Phanuel, of the tribe of Asher. She was very old; she had lived with her husband seven years after her marriage, and then was a widow until she was eighty-four. She never left the temple but worshiped night and day, fasting and praying.  Coming up to them at that very moment, she gave thanks to God and spoke about the child to all who were looking forward to the redemption of Jerusalem."   Father, thanks for the "she was very old" people in our life.  Care for them in your special way.  Amen.