I am tired. I’ve seen 80 Christmases in my life. Remember Christmas when it wasn’t so frantic? I miss those times. I sang alto in my church choir almost every Christmas till I was 15 and joined the adult choir to sing the Hallelujah Chorus and it was powerful and moving. I’ve never heard any music more beautiful. I loved singing in the choir. My sister Dianne sang alto in the choir too, and as long as I could be right next to her I could stay on key otherwise it was hit or miss.
Church for me used to be about the singing. The hymnal was right in front of my knees and I could hardly wait for the singing part. I grew up Southern Baptist and we ate a lot of covered dish suppers and sang a heck of a lot of songs from that hymnal and I loved them all. I don’t know when I quit singing, but I wish I hadn’t. My grandfather would sit on the end of the church pew and when we children…there were 5 of us…got restless he would reach over and thump us on the head. He carried “Life Savers” in his pocket for rewards when we behaved. Our reward for being “good” was we would all pack in the car when church was over and sing our favorites all the way to my Aunt Dotties house for a fabulous lunch of birds eye chicken pot pies. What a treat! Our family had orange groves near Leesburg and Aunt Dottie and Uncle Bruce lived smack in the middle of the groves. What a fabulous family we had. All the aunts and uncles and cousins. We kids were unaware of the problems of the adults till much later. When I think of those childhood times my heart sings. We churned butter, rode horses, ate tons of oranges, grapefruit, and ate wonderful home-churned ice cream.
Back to Christmas. My husband has given up on airplanes. “Too crazy” he states in his “I am sure of my decision and there is nothing to be gained by continuing the conversation” voice. Consequently, December 21, after checking my bag, I boarded American Airlines flight 271 to Jacksonville Florida after a brief layover in Dallas. My brother, sister and wonderful neice, Jennifer welcomed me with arms wide open. The airport was full to overflowing with travelers anxious and in a hurry and the pick-up line of cars was almost impossible to navigate…but I recognized, across a sea of cars and people, my precious Jennifer waving madly and jumping up and down! We laughed and hollerd on the hour drive to Palatka. It was lovely to see them and my heart was singing to be home. That night I hugged another darling niece, Crissy and her two beautiful daughers, Logan and Mia. We watched the sun go down on the St. Johns River and made our way to sleep.
Our plan for the next day was to spend the morning at Marshall’s and find some Christmas gifts for everyone. We spent about 3 hours racing through the store. With a little suggestion from my beloved sister Rosie, I headed to the huge rack of Christmas pajamas and ended up with pj’s for them all. It was so fun. We then headed out to pick up a fourth of a chord of wood. Watching the girls toss that firewood on the trailer was fun. The whole experience was fun. After all that work we headed to a Mexican restaurant located in the exact square feet City Drug Store occupied when I was a child. My fathers original store. The one where I grew up working behind the prescription counter in the 1950’s. I worked as a soda jerk too, and I can still make a deadly Banana split.
Rick called me during lunch to tell me he had fallen in the street as he went to get the mail and was in the hospital with bad abrasions on his face and body – he had landed flat on his face on the concrete! They were going to keep him overnight to give him an MRI. He wanted me to stay in Florida and of course I was in shock. My son changed my flight ticket and with both fear and disappointment I made my way back to Las Vegas on the day before Christmas Eve. The airports were absolutely insane! Frantic people were everywhere. When we landed in Vegas I quickly learned American Airlines had lost my luggage and my husband was released from the hospital and was home with our precious puppy, Georgia. Thanks to our wonderful neighbors and Rick’s best friend I was so glad to be home to take care of my sweetie. Christmas Eve and Christmas day we rested and recovered from all the craziness and went about the business of healing my dear, sweet husband from his terrible fall! My luggage was delivered to my door Christmas Day.
Whew!