...is still warming me with its' simplicity. Babygirl spent a sleepless night on duty at her job and called to wake me up around nine as planned. Then she headed off to Mom and Daddy's house to assist with the breakfast preparations while I took my time greeting another Christmas day. Daddy and Bubba were out on a mission of some sort in the truck when I got there, maybe looking for more dead calves. They've had five born dead already with no plausible explanation. One got taken for an autopsy a couple of weeks ago to try to solve the mystery of CSI Bovine. We shall see.

Us girls cooked and the guys snoozed in their chairs until the feast was ready. Denny's ain't got nothing on us when it comes to cooking breakfast. I'm just saying. About the time we finished up, baby brother and wifey called from Virginia for a conference call about the festivities. We passed the phone around and chatted about the weather and the dogs and life in general, accustomed to not being together anymore but feeling the familial tug to connect on this special day. Me and Harold were deep in discussion about friends and their families when I got the "time out" sign to get my smart ass off the phone to play Santa. Mama just LOVES to get creative with gift delivery so there were some original moments like when Babygirl opened a box with three wheels off of a toy car and a receipt for three new tires! Me and Daddy got notes stuck on a little tree telling us to go look in the back of Bubba's truck where pyracantha trees waited for us to plant. Fun stuff.

Mom settled into a rocking chair in front of the fireplace and me and the BG stretched out on the couch to rest a bit and then she got to talking about the history of our family and how we ended up there to begin with and continue to be here some fifty one years later. Most of this, BG had never heard straight from the horse's Memaw's mouth. Great stuff.

We talked about the ghosts of Christmases past and silently pondered the future. Nobody said it, but I know that we all believe more than ever. And that, my friends, is the greatest gift of all.