I'm Dreaming, Of A White Christmas

And a white Christmas is just what we got in Florence, SC, though technically fully fallen and enjoyed the day after.  Here, Jenna and Meredith have put the finishing touches on a snowman, all with the approval of Daisy, looking on.

Perhaps My Favorite Christmas, around 1982

And so my love of the synthesizer began.  I played this with my pal George until it fell apart and then I spent every penny I had saved for a Korg keyboard.  I still occasionally play on a Korg when not at my baby grand.  However, I now much prefer the feel and sound of actual hammered strings to the digitally sampled sounds of... well, hammered strings.

I Love Everything...

...about Christmas.  Part of the reason is that everything about the season brings back fantastic memories for me.  Memories of visiting my great-grandparents in Spartanburg, SC.  I had two complete sets of great-grandparents until I was 10 years old.  Memories of favorite Christmas meals and beautiful Christmas music. (Do you hear what I hear?)  The smell of baking cookies and hot chocolate with tiny marshmallows.  Riding around in the family LTD looking at manger scenes and light displays in front yards, some of them pretty remarkable.  Christmas movies with the family.  The thrill of going to bed a tad early on Christmas Eve, awaiting a visit by the jolly fat man.

Today and tomorrow I continue to build memories with my own children.  I-Carly is having a very special "seasons greetings" episode on the upstairs TV.  The kids will need to help us clean the house and straighten up for family visits tonight.  They can also help me finish picking up a few last minute items for their Mom and the dog needs her teeth brushed (her breath could knock you over).  While I'm at it I'll fuss at them for not cleaning their rooms.  Merry Christmas, Bedford Falls!

Could it be that the good memories override the cruddy ones- the downside of Christmases-past forgotten or repressed.  For my kids sake, I hope so.  Even as I sit here trying to write them down, good Christmas memories seem to flow pretty easily while the bad ones seem a bit more distant.  And with time, maybe the bad ones are gone altogether; who knows.  Maybe that's a Christmas gift in and of itself.
    

Happy Birthday Leah!

I'm proud of my baby sister and wanted to celebrate her birthday (December 12, 1974) with a handful of memories in the form of grainy family snapshots.  

Leah with my mom, Janelle, after her adoption from Vietnam.  She was on one of the last US planes out of that war-torn country, shortly before the April 1975 fall of Saigon- now Ho Chi Minh City.  She was 4 months old when she joined our family in SC.  My parents worked with an agency called Friends of Children of Vietnam.  Read more of "operation babylift" here.

 My brother Scott and I loved our baby sister, though once I remember losing her 20 feet up in a pine tree.  About the time this picture was taken, Scott and I tied an old baby-swing to the top of a sapling, rode it down to the ground and decided to put Leah in it.  Apparently, we didn't understand that her weight was not enough to bring her back down to earth as it had us.  We eventually shimmied up the tree, brought her back down to safety, our parents none-the-wiser.

I don't recall Leah being an expert at clogging, but I do really love this picture.  Hey Mary Anne, Gilligan would love another coconut cream pie!

Leah, Colt, Gram and an overly enthusiastic Big Daddy, Thanksgiving 2010.