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Thanks John, Iggy & Jack...

I am glad that one touched you as well. I just got back to TN after driving up to MI to spend the holidays with my sister and her grown children and grandkids. We celebrated Christmas early...so my sis and I spent much of the Christmas week doing things we seem to usually put off...visiting those few remaining relatives from our parents' generation. We drove over to Muskegon to see our dad's baby sister who is now in a care center with the early stages of Alzheimers. Her devoted husband who is also in his late 80's drives over there daily to feed her and spend his whole day with her. She recognized us even though it has probably been 10-15 years since we last saw her. One of our cousins who lives not far away met us there. Our aunt would look at my cousin and say..."you sure look like Lois". And Lois would say..."that's because I am Lois". It breaks your heart to see what that disease does to folks. But our aunt and uncle were SO glad to see us and be able to spend a half a day catching up.

Then on Christmas day..we went the other direction to spend the day with two elderly aunts of my sister's husband...both in their 90's. Both of them are still mentally sharp...but physically slipping a bit. Just knowing that we chose to spend our holiday with them meant so much. Our little remembrances were humble but they loved them all the same.

One of the best evenings, however, was when we invited three elderly ladies who have been lifelong friends of our family, over for dinner. All of them are are in their late 70's to late 80's with grown children who live in distant places...and all of them were alone for the holidays. We knew that all of them had connections that they were not aware of...so it was TRULY fun to bring all those connections out into the open and let them bask in the joy of fond memories. One was a distant cousin of our dad's whose mother had been a rather famous minister when I was a small child. She was not aware that one of the other ladies had been a parishoner in her mother's church for several years. The other lady was the mother of my best male friend in HS. A beautiful woman even now...she has been the recipient of numerous proposals from male admirers whose spouses had passed away...including the father of one of the other ladies.

All in all...it was the warmth of being able to help make others truly happy this holiday that was the highlight of my own. Too often we forget these older folks when it really does not take much to make them very happy. I know we all get busy...but family is SO important. It's hard for me to understand how their own children don't care enough to include their mothers in their holiday plans. I sure cannot judge anyone else, that's not my business...but for me, holidays are all about family.

One evening, my sister and I invited all of our cousins over for an evening of playing table games and reminiscing. This time...we even remembered to turn on a tape recorder. Oh my...the stories some of them remembered!! LOL I never did all that stuff!! LOL Well, maybe I did.

Sorry to go on...but this year really reminded me that giving of one's time is often the very best gift of all. Jack...I can just imagine how much happiness you and the other musicians bring to those folks at the Oaks. Bless you!!

Happy Holiday Hugs,
Bobbie