Merry Christmas!

Noel, Christmas at King's, 33 Favourite Carols; King's College Choir, Cambridge

My sisters, my Mom and I learned many years ago not to give a book to Dad as a gift on Christmas morning until all of the other gifts had been given out. Otherwise, while the rest of us opened presents and celebrated the birth of our Lord by giving of ourselves to each other, Dad sat unengaged and let his gifts pile up around him while he continued to read his book.

One Christmas morning, when one of us had forgotten and given him a book during one of the first rounds of gift giving, I happened to see, from across the room where I was sitting, a picture of that guy from CBS Sunday Morning who does a segment called “Postcard From Nebraska” on the cover of the book he was reading. He wore a pair of bib overalls and had a funny smirk on his face. The title of the book was “Actors And The Men Who Love Them”. This was too weird. Which one of us would think that Dad could like this book? And why did Dad like this book? Two questions that I didn’t say out loud, because I didn’t want anybody to answer. A couple of hours later, I checked out the book and I saw that Dad’s fingers must have been covering part of the cover. The book was called “Tractors And The Men Who Love Them.”

I don’t have a CD to correlate with that story. I just thought I’d tell you more about our father.

Today I am with my family, socked in by another one of our fine and friendly South Dakota blizzards, with a house full of warmth, good cheer, lots of presents, Christmas gunny sacks fit to burst, French toast, oyster stew, cookies up the ying-yang and pumpkin pie. MMMMMMMmmmmmm pumpkin pie……….

The Christ child is born, and my favorite British vocal ensemble, seen many times on these pages, is singing Christmas Carols all day on my iPod through my Mom’s Bose speaker system to honor the celebration of His arrival.

Credits: To my family, immediate, extended, imagined and virtual. I love you very much.