The Joy of Christmas

Today is December 25, probably my favorite holiday of the year. I have learned over the years to just try and not get too "worked up" over a holiday that is supposed to be a celebration of new life! So, when the big day was too quickly approaching, I first decided to not put up a tree. When it got even closer, I regressed into former behavior and did not get my Christmas letter mailed (rationalizing that everyone would enjoy it more after the rush of the holidays). Quite a few years back, Kay, a dear friend of mine, suggested that her family has Christmas dinner on Christmas Eve. Then on Christmas Day, they just relax and eat leftovers (of which there are always plenty at Christmas time). After spending many years working all day long on Christmas to prepare dinner (and this after having gotten up at the crack of dawn to see what Santa had brought the kids), I thought to my self, "What a great idea." So, now every year on Christmas Eve we have a light (if any) lunch and begin the celebration with a few snacks before having dinner around 5 pm. Our tradition (as started by my Dad many years ago) is to prepare a "roast beast" along with all the trimmings (but not the Yorkshire pudding which my Dad so lovingly prepared- too much cholesterol for the old heart). After dinner and a quick cleanup we head to church for Christmas Eve service - communion, candlelight and carols. We need never forget that "Jesus is the Gift" for which we celebrate. It would not be Christmas Eve without it! Later we went to Kim's for dessert and gift exchange. Earlier today we talked via a skype internet call to Joey and his family. Nowadays modern technology makes it so much easier to keep in touch, than in years ago when we were out of the country and Christmas came around. We were able to see John model the new "night vision goggles" we had sent his way and to talk with all the Hickox grandkids. Tauna, our pseudo adopted daughter called from Phoenix to wish us a Merry Christmas. Karin tried to call us while we were talking to Joey's family, so we'll have to talk with her family later today. Now we are enjoying some much needed R&R and eating leftover hot roast beef sandwiches for dinner! Thanks Kay for that wonderful suggestion those many years ago.

A Christmas Carol, live

I've seen movies of Charles Dickens, a Christmas Carol, many times over the years. A theater production of it is performed every year here. This afternoon Kim, the Turner kids, and I went to the Alliance Theatre in the Woodruff Arts Center and saw this year's production. It was a wonderful show - fantastic scenery/props, great period costumes, special effects, and super music and acting. Chris Kayser played the lead and has performed in a Christmas Carol for 24 years, 17 of them as Ebenezer Scrooge. All the actors were really good, including Tiny Tim. It amazes me that such a young boy can have such a great old English accent. It was Ben's first time to attend a professional show, although he's been in several school productions. As an aside, after we made plans to go, Alison and Daniel found out they could get extra class credit for going. On the way home we stopped at the world famous Varsity for supper. A good time was had by all!

Christmas is Here!

I have finally gotten a little time today to start decorating. I know it's a little late, but then again, for those who read this and know me very well, it will not be much of a surprise. I am notorious for not getting my Christmas greetings out before the big day. I think the record one year was March when I finally got it mailed. A few days ago, when I realized that Christmas was very rapidly approaching, I decided that I would NOT put up a Christmas tree this year, for the first time since we have been married. I would still decorate, but just no tree. Joe was in agreement. I love a big tree and with the time getting so short, it just isn't practical or realistic. This was the year we were going to get an artificial tree for the first time, and I couldn't make a decision on one. Every one I liked was so overpriced, that we just decided to wait until after Christmas and hopefully we can get a deal on a nice tree then. Joe did get the outside lights up last weekend - I figured people passing by would think we were ready for Christmas if they just didn't come inside the house.

Anyway, my prize Christmas possession is now up and in a prominent place in the living room. When we knew we were going to be going to Europe, back in 1970, I promised myself that if I ever got to Germany I would purchase a Hummel Nativity Set. Over the two years we were there, I waited until my last trip out to Frankfurt. Fortunately, the BX had a set on sale, but I still hesitated to spend the $120 dollars (yes, you read correctly). Now, just one of the figurines would cost more than that. I finally purchased and hand carried it home with me on the plane. I had quite a time trying to explain to the German police at the airport that I was carrying figurines and not guns in the long, slender box that held the prize. To this day I still use that box to repack the set every year. Of interest, when I arrived home, very excited about my treasure, another wife commented "Did you get a camel?" A camel did not come with the set, and I was devastated!! As you can see in the photo, I later purchased the camel for the dear price of $75 (almost the cost of the whole set). Each year now, the Hummel Nativity is the first thing to be put out and the last to be packed away. And why not? After all Jesus' birth is the reason we celebrate the holiday in the first place!! Tomorrow I will get the rest done, but tonight I know that Christmas is definitely on the way. The newsletter is gonna have to wait!

There are Heroes Among Us

Last night Joe and I attended the annual Christmas meeting of his Ben T. Epps Flight of the Order of Daedalians. Joe has been a Daedalian for many years and has, in fact, over the years helped start two flights. For those of you who don't know, the Order of Daedalians is a fraternity for military pilots. At his local flight members get together regularly and tell war stories. In addition, they raise money to fund college scholarships for young men and women who aspire to a military career. Although you might say that all the members are heroes (which they are in many ways), there were two genuine, HEROES, that attended last night's meeting. Wayne Waddell http://www.pownetwork.org/bios/w/w058.htm was a neighbor or ours and a fellow instructor pilot at Craig AFB in Selma, Alabama during the early years of our marriage. But more significantly, he was a POW in the Hanoi Hilton http://www.farfromglory.com/hanoihilton.htm for almost six years during the Viet Nam War. Wayne is a member of the Ben T. Epps Flight and gave a short commentary on remembering those military personnel who have never returned, either as POW's, KIA or MIA. It was very sobering and reminded us all that the freedoms we experience in this country have never been "free." In fact, they have come at a great cost to many. Will include a short video clip of our attempt to get a good photo with Wayne and his wife, Barbara (the photographer managed to do a video rather than a photo) .

The program speaker was 87 year old, Theodore "Dutch" Van Kirk, the navigator on the Enola Gay. Talk about an historic evening! He was a member of the US Army Air Corps during WWII and flew several very interesting missions (see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theodore_Van_Kirk). He showed a short film about the Enola Gay mission that the Smithsonian uses in it's Enola Gay exhibit. He talked about the preparation to fly the mission to drop the first atomic bomb on Hiroshima on August 6, 1945, and described the flight itself in detail . During the question and answer session that followed the presentation, he was able to clarify why we dropped a second atomic bomb on Nagasaki and why that was the last one. It was an awesome evening!

Joe, Barbara, Wayne and me

Joe,

"Dutch"

and me

We've UNADOPTED!

Just a quick note! When Mom realized that Prissy was back to her "old" self, she decided she needed to go back home with her. So, for the time being Prissy is back with Mom. If she gets sick again, we'll have to reconsider. BTW, we had a nice trip down to Joe's hometown and enjoyed getting together with a bunch of his HS classmates for dinner and fellowship. We were pleasantly surprised when Maryanne and Charlie showed up from California. Joe and Charlie grew up together out in the cotton and peanut fields of South Georgia. Almost 25 years ago, we took a nice trip with them - a week long cruise of the Hawaiian Islands. They had just gotten married, so it was their honeymoon, while we were celebrating our 25th wedding anniversary. We had a good time reminiscing. After we spent the night with Joe's sister, Helen, we took her out to Cracker Barrel for breakfast - nothing can beat breakfast at Cracker Barrel!

Joe and Helen at Cracker Barrel

We've adopted!

We've added a member to our family! You're probably thinking "what are those two old codgers doing adopting at their ages?" But, it's not exactly what you might think at first glance. Most of you know my Mom, Mary. Prissy is her pekingese that she has had now for all except about 6 weeks of Prissy's first days. Prissy is now 17 years old (and that's a lot of years in dog years), pretty much blind and deaf, but still perks along with Mom on her daily walks around her apartment building. In fact, whether Mom could keep Prissy with her when she moved to her current residence 5 years ago was a critical deciding point. About 10 days ago, Mom called and said, "I've got a PROBLEM." Prissy's diet had been changed by the Vet a few days prior to the call, and it seems it didn't agree with her GI system. To keep it brief and not too graphic, Mom had been cleaning up after Prissy all day as she "leaked" from both ends. Of course, she was dehydrated by this time and so, I suggested she might want to get her to the Vet. Mom was exhausted after all the cleaning, etc, so Joe and I went to pick up Prissy that night. When we took Prissy to the Vet the next morning (which was last Friday) he decided to give her some IV fluids and keep her there over the weekend. After the weekend of tender, loving care, and a little help from some drugs, Prissy came home (meaning our home) on Monday and has made steady improvement since that time. Mom says she just can't handle Prissy any longer and has "let go." I think that since Prissy has been gone, Mom has realized that it is easier without her. So, you guessed it! We now have another dog. She really isn't much trouble. Joe has always loved her (as have I). Except for the long hair that gets on everything, we enjoy having her here. She only weighs 8 pounds (so doesn't eat much), and at 17 sleeps a lot of the time. However, since she has lost most of her sight, the first thing we had to do was put the baby gate back up at the top of stairs yesterday. Yesterday, when Prissy saw the light of the stairs she thought it was a hall, and before I realized what was happening there was a little ball of long, brown fur rolling all the way down our stairs to the basement. I was very thankful she didn't get hurt. She also periodically runs into things she can't see well, but doesn't seem to have difficulty finding the food bowl. She likes to travel, so we will take her with us to visit Joe's sister this weekend.

Slow going

Well, after being so excited about all the "progress" we had made a couple of days ago on my new curriculum writing endeavor, we spent the day changing EVERYTHING! Well, maybe not everything, we still have the same mission statement and philosophy. But our beautiful (and artistic I might add) conceptual model - GONE! Instead of circles we now have triangles. I would put the new one on this website, but it will probably be different the next time I make an entry. We even changed the concepts! Oh well, I've done this before and just forgot what a tedius job it is. How it's never perfect - how every time you look at it you see something you want to change under the guise of improving it. Oh well, it's been a good day and my brain is in full speed ahead mode. Hope I can get to sleep.

Failing Retirement

I recall very clearly in years past hearing retired people saying to me "I'm busier now than I was when I worked." I always wondered to myself, "How could that possibly be?" Now that I have entered this phase of my life, I too find myself busier than ever. Of course I am now doing the things I want to do with my days and not what I "have" to do. Most everyone knows that I manage to stay pretty busy with a variety of things, among them are serving as a CASA (court appointed special advocate) volunteer for kids in foster care, working one or two weekends a month doing clinical nursing testing for a center here close to home, traveling whenever I get the chance, and keeping up with the grandkids, etc. Last week when I told Kim I had decided to take on another activity, she was aghast. A fellow "retired" nursing faculty called me and asked if I would help her write a curriculum for a new nursing program that she has taken on. Apparently, everyone she had asked could not do it, and she was getting desperate I think. I like to write, and it sounded like fun. Initially I just went in to "talk about it." After thinking about it for a day or so, I decided that a temporary committment of 2-3 days a week for a few months might be a challenge for my now somewhat idle brain. Today I spent 8 hours brainstorming with my new "boss," and surprisingly we really got a lot done. When I got home, I proudly showed Joe the draft of a mission statement, program philosophy and conceptual model on which we had worked. Joe told me to return a call from Jeanette (formerly my department chairperson and now supposedly "retired" also). The first thing she said to me was, "I hear you flunked retirement and are back at work." I really didn't think about it like this, but guess it is so. Doesn't life take interesting turns??