It's about (Christmas) time

TG, me, and Dagny, last Sunday night

It's obvious to anyone with one eye and half a brain even the casual observer that I have been too lazy/busy/distracted/preoccupied to write a blog post.

I would apologize but I'm pretty sure that this fact has not moved the earth off its axis, and/or that you are also too busy/distracted/preoccupied (notice I did not accuse YOU of being lazy) to even notice.

Be that as it may, here I am. AND you should know that this is the second time I am writing this post.

I wrote it to completion earlier today, and then just as I was getting ready to post, it all went away. Including my website.

Poof! Gone.

I reached out to the host of my website and just now, several hours later, learned that it was a problem on THEIR end. And it is now resolved.

So here we go again.

Christmas is a week away. This year we will have two Christmases.

Christmas One will take place this coming Friday night.

This is our annual tradition of our eldest daughter Stephanie coming with her family to celebrate our Christmas with them (they go to our son-in-law's family in Pennsylvania each year for the actual holiday), as well as our granddaughter Melanie's birthday.

Melly will turn twenty on December twenty-first, the shortest day of the year.

(We love her birthday for obvious reasons, but also because the very next day, the days begin getting longer).

We're meeting at our Erica's house on Friday because she and Chad expressed the desire to host, and I was fine with that.

I will be making several of my signature dishes and I'll be sure to follow up with pictures of that for you.

Because I know you want to see proof of my cooking, and because I look forward to seeing pictures of your holiday dishes.

Quid pro quo, saith the Pirate.

Second Christmas will be the actual Christmas Day, when we will be joined at our house by our two girls who live here, and their husbands and children.

Chad and Erica, along with Rhett and Elliot, will go to Chad's family early in the day, and come to us later.

Mike and Audrey and Dagny will spend their first Christmas together by (I'm sure) having a pleasant morning around their own Christmas tree, exchanging their gifts to one another.

Then everyone will come here and I'll prepare a big dinner and we will open presents and then eat pie and cookies and drink coffee and watch a Christmas movie before everyone expires from fatigue at all of that celebrating.

Mike, Audrey, and Dagny celebrate their first Christmas as a family

Before I go I wanted to tell you about last Sunday evening at church.

Our children's choir gave a musical presentation with the theme of Jesus being God's gift to us. 

There were several song selections punctuated by narration given by the children.

Dagny was part of a group of four young ladies who came forward out of the group at one point, to sing a song.

As it happened, the song opened with one of the girls singing a solo. Eventually at least three of the girls had solo parts in the song.

But that first solo was given by our Dagny.

OK so I am not here to say that my granddaughter is a child prodigy or even particularly gifted in music, with a talent that leaps off the page and blows your hair back and sucks all the oxygen out of the room.

All I am here to say is that I was taken aback by both her singing voice and the poise with which she sang.

Dagny is an habitual hummer so I have heard her non-speaking voice. Sort of. But most people's singing voices are recognizable if you are familiar with the singer's speaking voice.

When Dagny opened her mouth to sing, I did not recognize her voice. It was stronger than I would have thought, and did not strike me as coming out of the ten-year-old girl I have known since she took her first breath outside the womb.

It was impressive, as was all of the singing by the girls in her group, and all of the children, that night.

Isn't it a blessing to watch children grow up and come into their own God-given talents and abilities?

I think it is. And so when Dagny came towards me after the conclusion of the service, I told her: Speaking of gifts, you have a gift in this voice. I tapped her neck in the front where her vocal cords are.

She giggled and I asked her if she was nervous when it came time to sing her solo, and she giggled again and shook her head and said no.

So there you have it. 

I insisted on a friend capturing a few pictures of me and TG and Dagny beside the minimalistic manger scene at the front of the auditorium.

Then I took a few of Mike and Audrey and Dagny.

We stood around and fellowshipped for quite a while after the service, and by the time we took the photos, Chad and Erica had already bustled their little boys out and home.

Elliot is just recovering from having been sick, and Rhett was sick before Elliot got sick, and they need their rest.

Or else I would have got a picture of them too. But I promise to make that up to you.

Dagny was also sick with a severe cold for most of last week. Seems this hard cold virus is circulating amongst the children of our church.

TG and I are well and have been well, and I hope you have been too.

I promise to check on each and every one of you before Christmas, so that you know I love and cherish you and have not forgotten you.

And that goes for every day of the year, and not only at Christmas.

But I do wish you a most happy and meaningful and pleasant and joyous holiday season.

And that is all for now.

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Happy Week-Before-Christmas