Moments before the tumult of the paper toss...My Santa-baby lays under the tree before the children rise and jump on him

Only one real child is still at home. Everyone else is grown, but they are still children to us. I am very grateful for the elongation of the maternal season that we enjoy. When they are gone the empty nest is a fountain of memories, but for now the memories are still in the generator.

Father-bear loves the nightlong vigil of commitment and intensity. I am always a willing, but incapable armorbearer. We carry the torch into the memory generator, like there is a treasure in that cave and there is. There are memories that are treasured, just for us. Just for the page of Christmas that is Ezra's 11th Christmas and Ethan's 15th. We are all still watching the men that they will become. Enoch, at 20 is still watching the family develop and participating as an adult now. The fledgling college woman carries her womanly spectacles and puts them on and takes them off as it suits her. She is a woman, when she wants her way and a child when she wants it that way also. The women are like all of the elves in Santa's workshop. They have the invaluable tasks of galavanting and creating the festive mood. Elyse at 28, carries the orchestra baton in her bag. I think that she and Grandma Monica, must have met somewhere between earth and heaven she is so much like her. Emily, my clone is 24 and the bossiest boots in the bunch. We couldn't have found this bunch of treasured memories without their capable services. Santa and I fall into place and follow our directions and the wonders of Christmas Present unwrap themselves as they have for our 31 Christmases together.

Our Christmas Treasure chest always seems more full than we can bear and there couldn't be another wonder to observe, enjoy, or complain about, as we always do all of the above. Still there is another chest of memories to discover and enjoy. The Circle is still unbroken and remains a blessed privilege to encompass. All Hail the Power of Jesus Name!

I Hope You get everything on the Grown Up Christmas List. Merry Christmas!

With Cotton, still in our ears, we went to hear the "Maestro" play in his Christmas Concert. How very pleased we were.

Of Clouds and Cotton: Merry Christmas Cottonfields to munch!

Once we've gotten our baby girl the clouds look wonderful. Before, they are just in the way and we have to smack them aside to get to our EVVY. :{

Me at 53! So Much to Be Grateful For!

I finished the blankie for the college woman to have a comfort from mom to hold, while she's away.

Our Favorite Thanksgiving Pizza Place is a wonderful family outing!

On the phone with sis is a rare occasion. I hate talking on the phone, unless I have my guitar on my lap:)

Happy Birthday, Jackie, Did you have a Great Party?

Welcoming Baby Jackie----Before she was born---50 Years ago today, our lives changed...

What a couple of hooligans we were, for sure. We probably had the most messy and defiant fun, when mom was expecting Jackie, "Doggone Right!" It feels like yesterday, in my minds eye, when I see those little faces coming around again in Naveem and Addison. How could anybody look just like my baby sister? We were deciding that we were big enough to pour the milk and juice for ourselves. Are you sure we are old enough, Ju asked? I am sure, let's go downstairs, we certainly don't want to wake mommy, with baby Jackie in her tummy, now do we?

We scurried downstairs and opened the fridge and mom called down and scared us. I dropped the bottle right on the kitchen floor and mom fell down the stairs and slid into the kitchen to try to rescue us from ourselves. We didn't need rescuing, because we were becoming the "Big Girls" "Doggone Right!"

We were too short to turn on the light in the downstairs hallway and we were too afraid of the dark to go to the fridge without the light on. We snuck down the stairs and stood on each-other's back. Ju was still too short standing on my back, so I had to stand on her back to reach the light. Dad would leave Manchester downstairs to discourage us from getting into trouble any more than we already did, except one Thanksgiving he came home and the turkey carcass was strewn all over the dining room, because mom had left it out to thaw. Dad, nearly had a heart attack thinking that it was one of us. He never left Manchester downstairs while we were home after that day.

My favorite, pre Jackie memory is trying to climb up the cuckoo clock. I said Ju, if you hold one chain and I hold the other, we can climb up and see the cuckoo bird. The clock fell down while we were trying. How did that clock get on the floor? I don't know? "You're doggone Right!"

We were in the car driving, just past the church and nearly to Ms. Ruffins house area and on the radio came "eaving on a Jetplane". I remember it like yesterday. Ju was seated next to dad in the front seat and she started screaming, "She is not coming back!" She is not coming back!-- He had to pull the car over to the side of the road, to try to comfort her that Mom had gone to the hospital to bring baby Jackie to us. Why is she getting so upset? I thought. I was a pro at knowing what was going to happen with this baby sister, thing. I had been through it with her. We sat there for a long time. I really don't know now if dad knew what she was saying. You are acting luney, he said, what is luney, I said. After the song was over and Ju calmed down we got on our way. I still can't believe that we were only 2 and 1.

Not so lost this time... But we got her back to school in only 10 hours on a Sunday

Happy birthday, Jackie, Did you have a great party? So sorry to have missed it. Much love to You Jack!

I finished the blankie that I was making for her on the journey and we didn't get as lost as we did, on the way to get her.

I fell asleep{I'm the "nagivator", I mean "navigator"} on the way to get her for Thanksgiving this year. I woke up and we were in Roanoke, VA. We had missed the fork to go toward Raleigh and had stayed on 85 instead. I loved it. A wonderful lady gave us directions, we don't really know how to use En's gps feature on his phone and he wasn't with us. So, the human element of asking for directions was terrific. We were only 90 miles to the west of the school and it looked like a straight shot on the map. We took 158 and I really enjoyed it, because they had something other than cotton on the sides of the road to entertain me. Ben was getting unusually peaved because it was another country road with slow drivers in front of us. We started talking country and pretending that we were the cop that would pull us over. We were rolling in laughter all the way into Chowan. Thank God, we didn't get pulled over and we didn't lose anytime, it seemed at all.

My Emmy drove home this time and she knows streets like the back of her hand, so I went to sleep, about an hour from home. She really doesn't need a "Navigator, Nagivator" for driving. This time there wasn't as much cotton on the sides of the road, it had been harvested. I saw cows on the side all the way and they were also very social to us, surprisingly so.

The sky was nearly cloudless and I asked EVv to keep her computer in the car and not to put it in the trunk, because I just knew a story about the cows and the sky would hit me and I would need to write it down. That's not what happened. We talked about the birthday party that we missed and how Addy makes me remember when Jackie and Ju were born. I remember spilling the juice all over the kitchen floor and mommy sliding into the kitchen like it was home base. They laughed at the thought of us being little enough to try to climb up the cuckoo clock. It's great to talk about old memories, while making new ones.