“Running to the window, Scrooge opened it, and put out his head. No fog, no mist; clear, bright, jovial, stirring, cold; cold, piping for the blood to dance to; Golden sunlight; Heavenly sky; sweet fresh air; merry bells. Oh, glorious! Glorious!”
~ Charles Dickens, A Christmas Carol
The first snow—long, quiet, and cold
Tramping down the railroad tracks with Jared to show him the stone tunnel we used to play under as kids
The last of the Thanksgiving feasts with my family: Mom’s turkey, Mema’s dressing, sourdough bread, coffee, a fire in the hearth, and games on the floor until dark
Catan
A warm cup right out of the dishwasher
A snowy afternoon for multiple episodes of All Creatures Great and Small
Making chicken noodle soup and lemon ginger tea for a sick Jared
Delivering a basket of little stuffed animals to the nieces and nephews on Thanksgiving Day
Elsie and Elanor’s ballet recital to the Nutcracker Suite
Playing cars and dolls and watching Christmas movies with the preschoolers at Holiday Hangout
Christmas perusing at the Vintage Trader downtown
Janaya’s coffee crumble cake cookies (which, I assure you, lived up to their name)
Irish fiddling to Go Tell It On the Mountain
Hannah posting poetry on her blog again
An afternoon at Curtis Coffee Company in downtown Charleston and a long visit with the owner who gave us complimentary chicken n’ dumplings
Walking into a downtown store to Christmas shop and catching the owner singing a hymn with all her might
The old Van Buren courthouse alight for Christmas
Late afternoon drive through the cold countryside, winding up Mill Creek Mountain and down again, blue mountains and gold fields in the lean sunlight
Jared teaching me how to air up his truck tires
A porch swing, a quilt, and mixing bowls for Christmas
A brisket dinner with Jared’s parents and grandparents
The folks at the nursing home who were on a reindeer scavenger hunt
The bookshop on Dickson Street, a winding corkscrew of shelves to get lost in
“We who walked in darkness deep now see the light of morning”
Traveling home on Christmas Eve, the Boston Mountains holding the mist in their folds, a light rain on the copper fields, a good soundtrack
Christmas Eve lunch at Sugar Leaf Cafe
Dad’s Christmas sermon on Isaiah 43, how Christ has come for us
Jared’s red sweater
It’s A Wonderful Life
Sourdough cinnamon rolls on Christmas morning
Fresh leather of a new Bible
On Christmas Day, a house as stuffed as the turkey in the oven
Gifts, books, kids, new toys, Nat King Cole and the Carpenters on the record player, pickleball in the driveway after dark and leftovers at the table
How St. Charles has cobbled streets, shops with old and new books, and stretches itself alongside the Missouri river as it did in Lewis and Clark’s day
A new novel
Sharing hot teas in Joel and Natalie’s living room late at night
Walking down to the pond in rubber boots on a wet day to plan our wedding, the first signs of bulbs wintering beneath the earth
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