'Tis the season...

I've been pondering what to blog for this Christmas season. I'm not sure I have a handle on that at all yet; but I've decided to just start and let the ramblings and meanderings fall where they may. How's that last sentence for an opening ramble?

Besides the main reason for the season, there are many other sidelights. This is the season for making memories and glad tidings. I'm grateful that one of our youth at church spoke last night in the short devotional message before Bible classes about gratitude and thanksgiving. He started with a semi-apology about knowing it wasn't Thanksgiving any more and then stated he was going to speak about that anyway. He reminded me of many parts of my life for which I shall be eternally grateful and thankful on a daily basis...

I turned 61 last Monday. Many haven't made it to that many birthdays. According to Dr. Josh Axe, if I eat and live right, I may make it to 60 more. Let's see...if I have great grandchildren at about age 75 and great great grandchildren at age 95, I could have great great great grandchildren by the time I'm 115. Dr. Josh seems to believe that I will even still have the energy to bounce them on my knees. That would be incredible. Hope my knees hold out.

I am blessed with absolutely the kindest, sweetest, and loveliest (inside AND OUTSIDE) wife God ever caused to be hooked up with a man. She is a great conversationalist, good listener and supporter, amazing teacher, marvelous mother, and perhaps the most incredible grandmother God ever bestowed on grandkids. Though by now you may be wondering...no, she isn't perfect. She truly acts her age but looks 15 years younger. For fear of retribution, I cannot state her # of years in this blog. I love you, darling! :)

I have four amazing children, all of whom are no longer children. They are all married to wonderful, Christian spouses. They support one another and strengthen each other in their daily walks with God. I like to imagine an augmented Footprints in the Sand poem in which there are mostly three sets of footprints trudging the roads of happy destiny together. Sometimes the prints decrease to two. It is at those times when Jesus carries one of them or perhaps I can imagine that He walks along beside holding the hand of the spouse who is carrying the other spouse. I love that image.

Then there are the four adorable grandchildren...mostly curious and adventurous, sometimes stubborn, sometimes precocious, always precious. I'm grateful to live in the age of digital photography. Grandma and I can take all the photos we want, delete what isn't just right, never pay for film or developing, get prints made very cheaply, and then set up our Windows 2007 desktop and screen saver to show a different photo every few seconds. What's not to like about that? Since our television is next to our computer in the bonus room, I can watch a Hallmark Hall of Fame or Christmas DVD (we no longer have television channels in our home except online) and if it gets the least bit boring, I can shift my gaze slightly to the right and observe my kids and grandkids doing all sorts of alluring stuff...all this from the comfort of my nearly 12-year-old, conformed-to-my-body-shape, Lane recliner.

I'm also thankful for health and transportation good enough and fast enough to enable us to visit all four of our children's families in four different states (none in Tennessee) over 18 days during this holiday season. We will first head west to see Daniel and Katelyn in Searcy, Arkansas (she graduates from Harding University the next day). We will then drive to my brother's home in Texas - Drake and his wife Bonnie live in Keller close to their daughters' families. From there we Westward Ho the Wagons (or sedan) to Hobbs, New Mexico for an early Christmas with Kara and Barry and the twin grandtoddlers Alyna and Ryan. Probably on Christmas Day we will trek to Kyle, Texas for another Christmas with Matt and Kathryne and our grandsons Sean and Joshua. Sunday, December 27, will find us making the 800+ mile journey home so we can catch a Monday afternoon flight to Quincy, Massachusetts for New Years with Krista and Adam. I do wish William Shatner and Leonard Nemoy would get cracking on that Star Trek "beam me up, Scotty" technology...as much as we enjoy road tripping, to be able to hold a suitcase and stand on a transporter platform and hear someone state - in an excellent Captain Kirk imitation voice - "Energize!" would be the ultimate in vacation transportation. Perhaps if I live to Dr. Axe's prophetic age of 120, I will be able to sit in my wheel chair or lie in my adjustable bed and get beamed to any g' g' g' grandchild I want. I wonder if the technology would allow for beam blocking by which they could keep certain meddling in-laws from transporting in any time they wished. I can only imagine.

So, that's it for now. My ramblings are complete. Have a safe and warm holiday season with your family and friends and try not to eat too much. But when - not if - you do, be sure it's organic with agave nectar instead of sugar or Splenda and extreme dark chocolate along with entrees that are range free, grass fed, cage free, wild Alaska caught, and so forth and so on...and to all a good night!