Long List of Wants, Not a Single Need

"May You Have Warmth In Your Igloo, Oil In Your Lamp, And Peace In Your Heart!"

Man, I swear I've got all kinds of emotions and things and feelings and thoughts in my head. And my heart is sort of tied to them all too. And I'm sure that I'm no different than any of you. I miss my childhood Christmases. I miss being at Grandma's house on Christmas Eve with a million family members with my father bringing the ham (he was a butcher). I miss helping my Grandma set up the table for the evening (that should have been a sure clue for anyone observant enough to notice...there's no straight boy in his right mind that would have been helping Grandma set the table). I miss stopping at Gem Furniture on Broadway Avenue in Boise on the way home from Grandma's on Christmas Eve....to look in their Christmas windows to see the moving Santa and decorations....and the slow crawl that my dad would do in our 1967 blue Chevy station wagon up Main Street in downtown Boise to look at the pretty lights. I miss the warmth of my bed and hearing my mom set up our breakfast -- always the one, she still is, to make sure that there is good food with some little surprise on the table for us. I spoke with her this morning....she said that she thought it was going to just be her and my step dad for dinner today, just the two of them. I said, "Things sure have changed, haven't they?" She said, "Yes, they sure have. But, you know, I have a long list of wants in my life and not one single thing on my NEED list." Always the purveyor of good spirits and energy, she is. A very wise woman.

My honey fixed our Christmas Eve meal for us last night....it was ready when I returned home from my very delayed morning turn to Phoenix and back. We, well "I" really, struggled to find something Christmas-y on the TV and to make it all seem okay. And it was, I cannot (nor am I) complaining. It's just different. I know you can relate. We finished up the evening with my brother in law coming by for a hot drink and to watch the end of It's a Wonderful Life. You remember it, I concur....the part where they all hug and the little bell rings on the tree and the angel gets his wings. My father in law has only been gone a few months -- he always brought "the voice of Christmas prayers" to our table...today, he'll be missed. And word late yesterday from a fellow friend and blogger in Africa that his partner of many years passed away yesterday evening. And another blogger buddy in Texas that is struggling through horrible radiation treatments that burn his skin beyond belief. My honey's continue struggle to figure out what is going on his his throat to cause it to hurt. Ugh. I know you've all got your own lists to deal with. But a very nice surprise phone call from my buddy Anthony on an overnight trip in Seattle...just up the road, really...except that the road is covered with snow and ice right now......we were going to try and spend Christmas together.

Today my mother in law is coming over along with our good friends Alex and Paul for dinner. We've invited a few other friends who may not have friends or family to spend today with. We're going to enjoy turkey breast, yummy ham with a killer Paula Deen glaze that my hubby made yesterday, au gratin potatoes, lime-curry roasted carrot spears, spicy Thai brussel sprouts, and homemade cake by Alex! It's going to all be delicious. And honey and I spent the morning enjoying a homemade hot breakfast together....a rarity for us. Oh, and we've got NPR's live holiday mix streaming on the laptop. And if my sister hadn't sent two lovely Christmas gifts to our little pooch Mason, he would have gone without this morning.....and he has been a very very good boy this year.

Tomorrow brings the longest list you've ever seen before our trip to Albany, New York, on Saturday to spend New Year's with Sean and Jeffrey. Tomorrow list include: Packing, going to the storage shed to get our big giant suitcase, gym time including yoga, haircuts, teeth bleaching, washing our sheets so they'll be nice and clean when we get back home, taking Mason to his Aunt Melanie's where he's going to spend the week, making sure the I-pod is charged up and synced, shave a bit perhaps, check in for our flight to the east coast, and take down all of the Christmas decorations. We'll be up early!

So today, I say HAPPY and MERRY to you all. Whatever you're celebrating, I hope it's a ton of fun. It's odd that we've designed so much attention around a single solitary day of the year....a mere 24 hours. I'm of the same ilk many of you are....that we should find reason to be happy every single solitary day of the year. If we can't, we've got some work to do. And if we already can, I'm sure there is someone nearby that could use our help in doing so.