Dedicated to Tiger Woods

(I know, I know, that's mean. But I couldn't help myself..and btw, click on post title for latest Woods family portrait.)

The Forever Angel and the Silver Heart

I have written about my dearest friend Cynthia several times. I am so incredibly blessed with this friendship. Cynthia is beautiful, brilliant, articulate, educated, sweet and funny. And I cherish her.

One of our favorite things to do is shop together. One day we were driving back from the store when Cynthia told me a little story.

"When I was in college," she began, "I had a lovely friend. She had beautiful long blonde hair and a beautiful face and I was so happy to have her as a friend."

"We did everything together, just like you and I do. "she continued.

"One day, this girl gave me a gift. It was a silver heart filled with candy kisses and it touched me so deeply. And that was the last time I ever saw her. She simply. without a word, disappeared. I have often wondered if she were an angel. I really believe she might have been an angel."

Cynthia glanced over at me.

"Beej, you remind me of her in every way. You look like her, you sound like her and you're sweet the way she was."

I can't tell you how touched I was. I mean, that's a whole lot of compliments paid there. I decided right then, when Christmas rolled around, I was going to duplicate that gift.

I found a lovely silver heart candy dish (actually it was a little jewelry box but I used it as a candy dish..) I filled it with chocolate kisses and wrapped it up in pretty paper and a red bow. I added a card and wrote on the inside,
"To my forever angel from your forever angel; Merry Christmas."

I gave it to my lovely friend who opened the card first, silently read it, and opened the box. She gasped.

"You aren't going to believe this." she could barely speak, and the words came out as a whisper.

"I never told you this. How did you know? How did you know about my angel?"

"Cynthia, you did tell me. A long time ago."

"No, I didn't, Beej! No I did not!"

She slowly looked up at me.

"Are you her??" she asked.

"No Cynthia." I was beginning to feel bad that I wasnt her. "But you really did tell me about her. and I wanted you to know, that not all angels disappear. Some angels disappear, but not all of them. Some angels are in our life for the duration."

She thought about this for a few minutes as she studied the heart.

"Beej?"
"yeah?"
'You are a keeper."
"Yup. I know."

And I gave her a big hug.

Christmas Day

All the young people who have invaded my home this Christmas Day have gone to the movies. They are have gone to see 'Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Squeakquel.' And yes, I was invited but declined to go.





Instead, I am taking this time to browse a book I bought yesterday with a gift certificate from my bookstore.

This is one of those massive coffee table books, called 'EARTH.' It must weigh 20 lbs. But it's worth its weight in gold.



Oh, what a beautiful book. It's an atlas but more. I LOVE maps of all sorts anyway, but this book has the most spectacular photographs I have ever seen in an atlas. I have been lusting over this book for a while now so it's like a treasure to me and I love it. Here is a video I found on this atlas, to give you some idea about how magnificent it is and it allows you to see some of the phenomenal photos. Of course, I do not own the first edition, leather bound one. I own the blue one that is mentioned here within:




*************************************************

This is the first Christmas in memory where I had to awaken the 'kids' rather than the other way around. (How sad is that!) But when the clock hit 8am, I could not stand it any longer and so I got them up.

After the exchanging of gifts, we had out traditional Christmas breakfast:

cooled and crumbled cornbread
bacon
bacon drippings
eggs

fry bacon. remove from pan. Drain grease, leaving some
drippings in the pan. Crumble cornbread and fry until
crisp. Put on plate and top with over easy fried eggs.

Simple. Yup. But then you break up the egg and mix it into the cornbread and serve bacon on the side. YUmmmmm.

After breakfast, I went back to bed. leaving everyone else to play new games on the wii.

When the young people return from the movies, we will have dinner. Then that's it until next year.

Good Christmas. Day is almost done.
Ah, me.

But Still, And Always, With Love

Here it is, slightly after four a.m. on Christmas Eve. The tree is decorated. Candy has been made and taken to the book store for my coworkers. Token gifts have been given to my dearest neighbors. All the presents have been purchased, tho there are still a few that need to be wrapped. Reservations for Christmas Eve dinner have been made and tonight John, my daughter, my son, his fiancee and myself will go and have a special dinner. There is a ham in the refrigerator for Christmas day dinner. I have waited on all my customers at the bookstore who, at first, were filled with Christmas cheer but who have now become irritable and impatient with spending hard earned money and waiting in long lines.

For various reasons, this has been a difficult season for me. I'm exhausted. I'm ready for it to be done with. I didn't do as much as I usually do. Usually, my house, inside and out, is decorated to the hilt. I love white lights and red ribbons, but I decorated minimally this year. I didn't even put the candy canes on the tree this year. and my family has noticed the difference.

My kids are getting older and so am I. In a year or two my son will be getting married and I will hand over the honor of being the family holiday hostess to my daughter-in-law to be. And I am ready.

For some reason, I'm not sure what, exactly, I am ready to step back. And I feel good about doing that. It's time.

It's time for mom to relax and rest and enjoy life. I may even, sometime during this year to come, leave the bookstore, focus more on reading and working out. I would love to get more into photography. And writing.

Come on, New Year, come on, new life, bring it on. There is change in the air.

Merry Christmas, all. Happy New Year. May your days be merry and bright.

(Tweetey, I'm posting the following video for everyone to enjoy, of course. But mostly I'm posting it for your little girls. Please, have them sit and watch it. The photos are adorable amd I think they'll love it. And a special Merry Christmas to you; I know this year has been a difficult one for you and I want you to know that I think you are a wonderful mommy. xoxo)

The Prank

Louie went away for a week and left his apartment keys with a friend who decided to gather their crowd and play a Christmas prank. Here was the result. (this took 36 rolls of wrapping paper.)




And here is Louie's reaction:

Christmas Candy

I'm all for fun Christmas gifts. And to be honest, I do not care what folks give to one another. But some of the biggest sellers at my book store have to do with poop. I kid you not..

First one on the list has to be the pooping penguins. These are little plastic replicas of the adorable arctic animals. You push on its head and a brown little jelly beans pops out of its back end. I sell a lot of these. Why? Why would anyone put this in a child's stocking? I do not know.

There is also the pooping reindeer and in past years there has even been a pooping Santa. He doesn't even yank down his red pants, he just squats and lets 'the good times roll!'

But the one thing I do not understand at all is the lump of chocolate, wrapped in clear plastic wrap and formed to look like a single reindeer BM. Parents love to buy these en masse to put in their children's' stockings.

This, in itself, doesn't seem too, too bad but each time I sell these I offer a small, silent Christmas prayer for the child who is its recipient; please, please, God, let this child be old enough to know that people do not really eat excrement. I have this mental image of a two or three year old being told that it's okay to eat this and then taking that as a green light to, well, you know...eat 'it' wherever it appears.

This really worries me. Why would anyone encourage a little child to eat something like this? I think there should be a warning posted on all these lumps;

THIS PIECE OF SHIT COULD BE DANGEROUS TO YOUR CHILD'S HEALTH.

I'm not dumb; I realize most folks would tell their kids that it is, indeed, just a piece of chocolate. But what about the parent who doesn't think or who is too busy on Christmas morning to explain this to a little one? I mean, there are some people who aren't really all that bright. (Why else would they put on a book of matches where they advertise courses to become a lawyer, 'do not send matches with your application?" If you are thinking of becoming a lawyer, shouldn't you be bright enough to know that without being told?)

This is what I think; I think they should make this candy taste like crap. Then we would not have this concern on Christmas morning.

A Little Merry to All of My Friends