December 2024: A Month of Goodness

My mind is flipping through the memories and images of this month trying to settle on which one deserves to be the title and lead of this post. I guess I would say the most joyful one is when all the family was at our home celebrating Christmas the Saturday before Christmas Day. Our time at the Matthew’s home on Christmas Day was very enjoyable as well. I also consider our trip to North Carolina to be a great start to the holiday season. Basically the whole month was such a blessing, and it went way too quickly.

Saturday, December 21

Dale and I arrived home from NC on Sunday, December 15 and the following Saturday was our family Christmas celebration. I still can’t believe we were able to have all the kids, grandkids, Dale’s parents and sister over at the same time. Last year we spent Christmas together in Argyle, which was also amazing.

Dale smoked a brisket for our lunch. Not your traditional Christmas lunch, unless you live in Texas! Two of our party were quickly whisked away to go to the Longhorn’s playoff game at 3pm. It was a surprise gift that evoked a look of shock on our son-in-law’s face – something I’ve never seen before. His brother showed up at the door and off they went! The rest of us partied on!

That evening, after most of the guest had left, D&A joined us for a trip down to the Formula 1 Circuit of the Americas Track in Austin to drive the Peppermint Parkway and walk around a bit. Then on Sunday Dale and I treated his parents and Michelle to the play “White Christmas” at the Georgetown Palace, followed by dinner out.

On Christmas Eve Dale worked all day, so we attended the service at Central at 5pm. Then Dale, Dallas, Adrian and I planned to eat dinner out before finishing a game of Catan that we started on Saturday. Most places were closed, but we had a great burger at In-N-Out.

Christmas Day

Our morning was quiet and relaxing. I wonder how many years it takes to get used to not having kids in the home on Christmas morning? We have too much to be thankful for to allow room for anything but joy.

Just after noon we headed to Tom and Susan’s home. When our son married, we not only got an awesome daughter, we also added two of the sweetest people I know to our family. Tom and Susan always welcome Dale and I into their home for holidays. We had a great day visiting, sharing gifts and eating fajitas – another Texas Christmas meal!

The following day was Michelle’s 60th birthday! Dale and I had her and his parents over for chili and two rousing games of Spades. Another very enjoyable evening.

Now, here I am sitting at Starbucks writing this blog on the last day of 2024. Dale is working next to me. I finished reading the entire Bible today. Woohoo! I’ve been doing this every other year since 2012. Later this evening we are going to bring in the new year playing Bunco with friends. I have so much to be thankful for. I look forward to walking through the coming year with the Lord, my family and friends.