Christmas is ... "HONEY, COULD you come here a second?"... and "Darling, I need you to..." and "Baby, would you run to the store..." and don't tell me you haven't been there and done that.

-- Christmas Eve at our house... been doing this since a wedding back in May of '79... through three grandsons... family and kin gathered again at our house last night... but it's getting smaller each year... time does that as young grow up and move on into their own "traditions"... but they can't and don't take the memories with them... not ever.

Away in a manager,
No crib for His bed... * * * THIS YEAR a new Christmas tree... at the moment, "she" is still "Her"... maybe by next year, I'll think of something to follow "Ellen" and "Maudy Gaudy," the names of our first two trees that God didn't make.

-- Another one "down here" without snow... since the keeping of records, there has never been a "White Christmas" around here... which takes nothing away from the sheer joy of the season, now does it?

-- Smoking turkey breasts over hickory... I do it twice a year... Thanksgiving and Christmas... we put one away last night, the other hits the road this morning.

Hark the herald angels sing,
Glory to the newborn King... * * * HITTING THE road this morning to see Minnie Lou Vice who is in her 95th year in Peeks Hill... she is my aunt by marriage to the blonde and she really is a piece of work... great sense of humor, fine country cook, and a real beauty back in her natural prime... she's still a handsome lady.

-- Reaching out and touching by phone those too far away to visit... the blonde's Aunt Verna O'Hara way up in Circleville, Ohio, will get a call... she left here back in the 1940s with a handsome soldier by the name of "Chuck"... from up there... good guy, but left us several years ago.

Peace on earth,
Good will to men... * * * POINSETTIAS ... everywhere.

-- White lights that twinkle, lovely Noble Street at night (right out of a Norman Rockwell painting), peppermint candy canes... and when's the last time you kissed or were kissed 'neath the mistletoe?

-- Presents under the tree, all wrapped in color and ribbon...and who's gonna clean up this mess after the kids go home?

-- "This is exactly what I wanted, how did you know?"... or "You really shouldn't have..."

-- Hugs and "I Love You" all over the place.

-- Christmas cantatas at your church... I know you had a good one, but we few at Blue Mountain Baptist had the best... my story and I'm sticking to it.

-- Red... Sunday morning at Blue Mountain Baptist, I was one of the few who did not have some bit of clothing in red.

-- A birthday... as in...

Christ the Savior is born!
Christ the Savior is born!

May God bless...

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George Smith can be reached at 239-5286 or e-mail: gsmith731@gmail.com