Keep it loose, keep it tight

"That's what happens when tragedy strikes. People come and they sit (and they wait)."

We are approaching another Christmas, the end of another year. This year seems to carry a weight with it due to some health concerns - please send a good thought or two our way if you can spare them. My father is preparing for another trip into the hospital and we are preparing ourselves to sit in the waiting room as he is cared for by a team of gifted doctors and surgeons. None of us is very good at sitting and waiting - it is not a skill set that we've spent a lot of time trying to develop. As a family, we're doers. We do what we can, we do what's needed, we try to do what's expected and sometimes surprise ourselves and others by doing something unexpected. Sitting and waiting is not something we do a whole lot of - but that is what is needed in this instance. So, I've brought a sweater, determined that I'll direct traffic when we figure out how it's flowing and pray my way through the experience.

But first, Christmas. Tonight my brother helped me to light the tree in the way that I prefer - lighting the trunk to make the tree appear to be glowing from the inside and then stringing lights around the outer branches. I'll be decorating it with my sister after church and then the cooking will begin: soups, cake, breakfasts, lunches, hors de ouvers (sp?), punches, etc.
Actually conversation:
Mom: Hey darling. They had a 9 lbs roast at the Price Chopper.
Me: Well, that seems like a bit much. Do you want to get that?
Mom: It's Black Angus. I already bought it! (The PC is, literally, 4 miles from our house).
Me: Oh, well if you're alright with a beast that size. Where are you?
Mom: Driving up the hill. We're committed now.
Me: You needed to call me from the hill to let me know about a 9 lbs hunk of cow you purchased?
What can I say? My family is strangely committed to beef - which I now have to figure out how to cook. Who am I kidding? I love it.


I've been reading a great deal about Christmas wishes, Christmas lists, the "holiday economy" and I've watched my fair share of FaLaLaLa Lifetime movies this season. My Christmas wish? Your good health, that you love your husbands, wives, mothers, fathers, siblings and children, that you find friends who laugh with you, cry with you and show up with coffee/chocolate/tea at just the right moment, that we all use our common sense 3% more often (particularly at the polls) and that the new year will find you safe and sound.

Sometimes we forget who we got
Who they are
Who they are not
Keep it loose, child
Keep it tight