1. Christmas season this year has been unseasonably warm. Some days in the 50s while most others in the 40s. Christmas Eve service saw us with just a light weight jacket since the air had just a slight chill. After the service we were walking through the grave yard in the rear of the church towards our car when Carol stopped and pointed to a group of flowers that had just started to bloom. "I have never seen snow drops this late in the fall," she told me. My guess is that it is another reminder of global warming.
2. Christmas morning my wife and I shared some time together without anyone else. We gave each other the presents that we had carefully picked out for each other. During the last week I knew that Carol was constantly checking the front porch a few times a day for a delivery. As we exchanged our gifts I found an envelope. After opening it and removing the note inside, I got a cold sweat. I read her note about a present that had not arrived as of yet. On the note was a photo of the gift. I looked and looked at it and then tried to smile as I looked at her. "This came last week while you were at work and I returned it," I told her. The look on her face was one of Whatyoutalkingabout! "You see," I continued, "I had ordered much the same thing for you and didn't like it, so then I ordered the one you already opened today. I thought that I had deleted the initial order from Amazon, but when the gift came that you ordered for me, I thought they had sent it to me by mistake. That's why I sent it back." Does this make any sense to you readers? Well, I am now deciding if I want her to re-order what she got for me that I sent back, or if I would rather have something different, since what she ordered for me is so much like what I ordered for her and she opened for Christmas. Anyway, I guess you just had to be here! Oh, by the way, the gift was a cover for our iPad2 we purchased about 6 months ago. The one I got for her had a snakeskin look while the one I originally had ordered for her and the one she also order for me had a plain black cover, but with an auxiliary keyboard. As you see, we both think alike. Scary, isn't it?
3. On Christmas Eve day I got a call from an old friend. A friend that I have had for over 60 years. I get to see him maybe once a year, but he emails me regularly and we talk on the phone from time to time. We wished each other Merry Christmas and he asked what I was doing Christmas day. I told him the entire family would be here for dinner and opening presents, and then I asked what he would be doing. "Just a visit with a friend and her young son," was his reply. He lost his mother a few years ago and also his younger sister. His twin sister is at the other end of the country from him and I don't think he gets to visit with her very often. As we talked I felt a sadness for him that he doesn't have family as I do to share the holidays. At times I just take for granted my family and the fact that they are close-by for visits and holidays. Only when you talk with a friend who doesn't have the same, you realize how lucky you really are to be blessed with a close-knit family.
Hope you enjoyed the couple of stories or reflections from this year. I enjoyed sharing them with you. It was another extraordinary day in the life of an ordinary guy.
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