Ring Out the Old, Ring in the New

There's a reason January was named after the Roman god Janus.  This god had two faces, one looking back at the year just past, one gazing into the future.  Although I've never been too big on resolutions at the start of a new year, I do think it's an appropriate time to reflect back as well as to contemplate the year to come.

Not a lot of pictures today, but there should be more in upcoming blogs.  I sort of outdid myself on that last snow blog anyway.  Our 2010 ended in fine fashion.  After a wonderful Christmas here in Moore County, we headed to Georgia for the other half of our celebration.  Judy and I arrived on the 28th.  Matt and Jennifer with Claire and Evan hit town about the same time.  Buddy supplied comfortable lodging for all of us, and had even prepared a cardboard box fort with stuffed animals for Claire.  She liked it almost as much as hiding behind his drapes.

We visited Daddy briefly after his dinner, and he loved seeing the children.  Claire had a large ball to play with and inspected the Christmas trees.  Daddy was quite impressed with these two great-grandchildren.  The next day was somewhat busier.  Steve, Caryn, Brantley, and Lindsey came up from LaGrange.  We had planned an early supper at Daddy's favorite, Chic-fil-a, but alas, it was under construction, and temporarily closed (gotta check it out on Facebook, that reminds me).  Not to worry, though.  Picadilly cafeteria was right down the road, and we all ate a honking big meal.  Daddy would have kept eating as long as we kept putting food in front of him.  He was 95 before he discovered how well honey mustard goes with chicken tenders, but he's one old dog that can learn new tricks.

When we headed to Daddy's house for our umpteenth annual Christmas party, Stephen, Amanda, Brianna, and Hunter were there, ready to party.  We had a nice little family time before guests began to arrive.  Friends that have literally helped us celebrate Christmas in that same living room for decades were there again.  We had less music than usual, but plenty of food, folks, and fun (that sounds  familiar).

Daddy kept telling anybody who'd listen how well the children got along.  And it was true, too.  It was the first time he'd had all four of the "greats" around him at once.  Last Christmas, Claire and Bri weren't even crawling, and the boys weren't even born!  On this night everyone got an eyeful (and earful) of this newest generation of Daddy's progeny.

Naturally, Judy and I slipped into our favorite role for part of the evening, playing with Claire and Brianna in the family room.  As other folks slipped into that room, they witnessed the playfulness of these girls.  In one game, they would crawl under the loose sofa cover and sit perfectly still, with their legs sticking out.  This is their version of hide-and-seek.  In another game, one would crawl under my legs as I sat on the edge of a recliner.  Soon, the other would come crawling under, causing the first one to scramble out.  They seemed to never tire of the imaginative play.

After the children all had to leave, there was still a lot more visiting and catching up to do for those of us who remained.  It was after midnight when we broke up-- we didn't even last that long on New Year's Eve!

We returned home on Thursday the 30th.  Started a fire, left our bone-chilling house to dine at Thai Basil, then back home for me to watch UNC in the Music City football bowl game.  I know many of my readers are already aware of what a strange and historic game this was.  A game of repeated miracles, and my Tar Heels came out on top.

We have been getting back into a routine a bit more since then.  Saturday we had our traditional New Year's lunch with Jack and Thelma.  Sunday was our first church in two weeks since we had been snowed out the week before (we still had snow in our yard when we returned from Atlanta, but not much longer, by the way).  Tomorrow, we get our last Christmas present to ourselves, a propane heater.  It should be a nice supplemental heat to our wood stove.

I want to wrap up this post with one picture.  It's Daddy with a special "shadowbox" that Stephen and Amanda had prepared in honor of Daddy's military service.  In it are Daddy's military medals, 358th squadron and 9th Air Force patches, and a flag that flew over the U.S. capitol, the North Carolina capitol, and Pope Air Force base.  The first time Daddy saw it, all he could say was, "WOW."  All the guests at the party applauded him when we shared it with them.  I'll hope to have more pictures soon.

Well, I see I completed this post without the promised "contemplating the year to come."  But there's plenty of time (and cyberspace) for that.