this and that

Christmas is just a week away and I’m almost ready this year. Yippee!!! All the packages are wrapped and under the tree, the house is decorated, the Christmas cards have been mailed and a lot of my baking has been done. I only have the last minute details to take care before the big day.


This year while I was addressing my Christmas cards I had to delete yet another name from my list, my brother. He passed this past June. Mom died in 1980, my sister in 1992 and Daddy in 2001. That means I’m the elder of the family. Ouch!!! I was much younger than my brother and sister and was always referred to as “the baby”. Even when I was in my forties, Daddy would tell people, “you remember our baby.”

My daughter and her husband and their three children will be coming home on Christmas day. They want to be at home for Santa’s arrival. My grandchildren are 5 ½, 4 and 2. As you can see, my daughter has been very busy. They live about 5 hours from here, so they will be home sometime in the early afternoon. The kids have always been early risers.

My son lives close by, so I’m able to see him frequently. It brings me such joy to have all my children and grandchildren home for the holidays.

One thing we plan to do as a family this year is the see the movie “We Are…Marshall”. Both of my kids went to Marshall for awhile. They got their graduate and doctoral degrees out of state. I was living in South Carolina when the tragic crash occurred. We Are Marshall is a true story of how Marshall rebuilt their football team after a tragic airplane crash took the lives of the entire football team, the coaches and some of their wives, and several dignitaries after losing a game to East Carolina in November 1970. The movie stars Matthew Fox and Matthew McConaughey. I’m hoping this movie will be popular across the country, not just here in West Virginia.