Cowboys

Jan. 16, 2015

If I can't live in the mountains, I'm grateful to live in Cowtown. We went to the Fort Worth Stock Show and Rodeo with Grandson #2 and Daughter-in-law today. It was opening day, which we didn't realize when we made the date to go the Science Museum, but when we got there and found out that museum parking also got us into the Stock Show, we headed over. Little Boy loves the hunks of metal (tractors & ranch machinery) as much as the animals, and because it was opening day, the vendors were just setting up. So we got to see the Stock Show just coming together, a few animals and lots of tractors - without the crowds.

Smile for the day was the cowboys who let me take their picture. In a society too full of sloppiness - pants on the ground, wrinkled t-shirts and hoodies, and slouching posture - you gotta love cowboys. These boys walk with confidence and look clean-pressed even in work clothes - starched & creased jeans that fall just right on their boots (even cooler with spurs), neatly pressed shirts, a vest or jacket, leather gloves, topped off with a be-still-my-heart cowboy hat, blocked to fit perfectly. But here's why I really love cowboys: I asked if I could take their picture and they politely obliged, struck a natural pose and smiled - genuine smiles! When I thanked them, one said, "Yes, ma'am." How lucky I am to live where gentlemen still call a woman "ma'am" and mean nothing but respect by it!

Mistletoes

Jan. 3, 2015

The Happy Holidays are over ... at last. Too busy to write in December, but here's my list of Christmas things I'm grateful for:

• The reason the world shifts gears, hangs lights on trees and eaves, redecorates everything from homes to streets, and even tries a little harder to be kinder: the celebration of the lowly birth of Him who descended to mortality to live a perfect life so that He could offer Himself as a sacrifice for everyone else's sins.
• The music - Handel, carols, and even some secular Christmas like Mannheim Steamroller, Amy Grant and some of the Oldies. I'm grateful for those whose gift it is to make and perform it, grateful that my parents let me take piano lessons so I can play it.

2014 Christmas cards from friends near and far

• Christmas cards. All these friends - rushed and busy like me - took time to sit down, sign and address a card, some with a 2014 recap note, and spent 49 cents to send it to Husby and me. A few are friends we see often, and our cards are a tangible affirmation that our friendship is a treasure. Others are friends who have moved away, and although the holes left by each others' absence quickly fill up, the Christmas card is the thread that keeps us connected - like a web of little strings anchored to points on the map with pushpins. If either of us were to stop sending our Christmas card, we would lose contact. Well, there's Facebook, you say. Ah, but I'm not on Facebook because it's superficial and narcissistic, and it doesn't count. Seriously. There's just something about the act of making or selecting a card, writing a note, signing your name, writing a friend's name and address on the envelope, licking same envelope (that's love) and placing a stamp in the corner, that says, "You're my friend, and you mean so much to me that I'm sending this!"
• Visiting with friends. I take them treats, they bring me treats and we visit. One friend has a party every Christmas, so we get to visit with lots of friends all in one place and eat her husband's to-die-for authentic Italian meatballs.
• Going to The Polar Express at the Omni IMAX theater with Grandson #1 and Daughter. He had seen the movie dozens of times, but never at the theater, and certainly not on a 120-foot screen. And the Omni makes it a pajama party, with "Polar" activities and hot cocoa before the show.
  
  It was Christmas magic to see all those children in pajamas with their big gold train tickets, and sweet Grandson held his ticket all through the show. 
  
• Lights. Lights everywhere, making the night glow. I love our family tradition of driving around town to look at lights; Daughter brought Grandson #1 one afternoon, and we visited & played, mostly in the family room in the glow of the tree lights. After dinner Daughter wanted to go look at lights together. As we cleaned up dinner, Grandson made the seat assignments and gave me my smile for that day. Mommy would drive, Grampa would ride shotgun and Honey would sit in the back next to him. Grampa asked why Honey got to sit by him; he wrapped his arms around me and said, "Because she's my best friend!" I'm grateful that our family tradition now includes grandboys. And that brings me to my next and most important blessing:
• Family. All the music, greetings, decorations and food would feel a bit hollow if I didn't have family with me on Christmas day. Christmas is brand-new to Grandson #2 who gets opening gifts but not the occasion for gifts. After all the gifts were opened, we worked on our Christmas stockings; we called him over to see what was inside, and seeing a very large "sock," he lifted his little leg to try to put it in the stocking. Smile for that night. 
• On Christmas day, I told Grandson #1 I would have to get him under the mistletoe sometime that day. A bit later, standing under the mistletoe, he called me over and gave me a sweet kiss (which he doesn't do much any more). Later, when we were sitting around the table having a snack, he said, "Hey! We could have mistletoes all over the house, and then we could kiss all the time!" I love mistletoes and little boys.