The Closest I'll Get To A Sermon

It just doesn't FEEL like Christmas. This is what I keep saying to people. I'm not sure exactly what I'm wanting to feel. For starters, the 70 degree weather we had at the beginning of this week was no help. There is something wrong with running the air conditioner in my car while Christmas lights twinkle on my neighbors' bushes. And then we had a wreck. I was taking Sydney to the dentist when we were rammed by two young guys in an old, beat up car, neither of whom had car insurance OR driver's licenses. "Merry Christmas," I grumbled to myself.

"Mama, it was just an accident, wasn't it?" Sydney asked.

"Bah humbug!" I thought to myself.

I AM thankful that Sydney and I were okay. Mark came to our rescue. The guys were begging me not to call the police so I figured I'd let him come down and "deal with them."

We switched cars and I rushed Syd on to the dentist because, when given the chance to reschedule, I had retorted "oh no, we're getting SOMETHING out of this trip. I didn't take my daughter out of school just to go have a wreck!" We raced from the dentist back to school to pick up Sydney's friend and hurry on to McDonald's to meet some more little girls. My head was throbbing and my body was starting to feel sore. To be honest, I was still pretty irritated by the whole thing.

And then I talked to Mark. Mark let the guys go. He didn't call the police. Turns out they were in town from Michigan doing some construction work to make money for Christmas. One of the guys had a five year old son. Whatever they had done to lose their licenses, at least they were trying to be responsible now. "I just couldn't ruin someone's life right here at Christmas by having them thrown in jail or something," Mark told me.

"That's why I love you," I told him. And to myself "I bet THEY feel like it's Christmas!"

As I've processed all of this the last couple of days, I decided to "bust" myself for whining that it doesn't "feel" like Christmas.

No matter how I feel, it does not change the fact that the Christmas story happened. As we sat at the Point Of Grace Christmas concert a few nights ago, the most touching moment came when special guest, Scott Krippayne, sang Sydney's favorite worship song "Here I Am To Worship". Her little face just lit up. She had only heard it in the car (100 times). As she opened her mouth and sang with all her heart, "light of the world, you stepped down into darkness..................all for love's sake became poor" I was struck by the "Christmas" message in the familiar words. It's about a fallen world and a Light of hope. Things were set in motion on that night when Jesus was born that would change the course of history. Those things are still in effect today.

Whether I can FEEL them, or not.

Goodbye, Jerry

Pat and Jerry happen to own the seats next to ours at the Titans games. They are about the age of my parents and we don't have that much in common with them. Although Pat and I often shared polite conversation, Jerry was very quiet and kept to himself at first. We were well into our second season together before he finally started "high-fiving" with Mark and some of the other guys. Sometime last season Pat confided in me that Jerry had been diagnosed with cancer. He never looked or acted sick. Not even at the one or two games he came to this season. The last words I said to Jerry, back in September were, "we'll see you at the end of the season - at the last game!" He was about to have bone marrow transplant surgery and the recovery would keep him away from his beloved Titans games until late December. I am sorry to say that I found out today at the game that he died last month. We sat next to his son today and he told us that Jerry just never got healthy enough to have the surgery that could have saved his life. I feel so bad for Pat. I could tell that she and Jerry had a great friendship. They truly enjoyed going to those Titans games together.

I took it pretty hard. I know I looked visibly shocked when Jerry's son (I think his name is Lee) gave us the news. How do you grieve the loss of an acquaintance? I couldn't believe he was gone. I immediately put myself in Pat's shoes and felt the sadness wash over me. And here it is the holiday season.

I emailed Pat when we got home from the game. I told her I was so glad to have known Jerry. And I meant it. Because the truth is that somewhere over the course of two and a half football seasons, after sharing victory and defeat, touch downs and interceptions, we became more than acquaintances. He was our fellow Titans fanatic. And that made him our friend.

Goodbye, Jerry. You will be missed.

The Labrador Effect

No one in our house is getting much sleep these days. Who would've thought one yellow, lab-mix canine could so upset the delicate balance of our sleep patterns. Maggie has quite suddenly decided that she VERY MUCH wants to sleep in Sydney's room. I can't for the life of me figure out why sneaking up (and shedding) on the couch isn't good enough for her anymore. I really don't mind if Maggie sleeps in Sydney's room. She just seems to want to curl up next to the bed on a nest of dress-up clothes. The thing is that Sydney VERY MUCH does NOT want Maggie in her room. So here's what happens: Maggie opens Syd's door and starts to circle and make herself at home - which wakes Sydney up. Sydney hops out of bed and comes and gets in bed with me and Mark. She will stay until either I feel claustrophobic or she kicks Mark in the ribs - whichever comes first. One of us will then escort her back to her bed. When it is my shift, I lie in bed with her until I think she's fallen back asleep. Then I attempt to sneak out. I say "attempt" because it often takes more than one try. I will swear that she's out, but nine times out of ten she will catch me as soon as I stand up. When I finally make it back to bed, I lie there anticipating the next cycle of this middle of the night "musical beds" game that we play. I'm usually irritated by it all. I take my sleep very seriously. However, a couple of nights ago I laughed to myself as I lay there thinking about my very polite, timid dog, who wouldn't ever MEAN to put anybody out. As I drifted off to sleep the thought running through my head went something like this: if a yellow dog wags her tail in Tennessee.......does she trigger a hurricane somewhere on the other side of the world? Or maybe it's wide-spread bouts of sleeplessness that she triggers!