My mom, Nonna, with Grace and CallieWhile we were in Monticello for "Christmas", Grace sang a duet with my 5 year old niece Isabelle (at church). She did really well, to be so young! She got up there infront of 100 or so people and sang away! Check it out. The video is blurry, unfortunately, but you can hear them pretty well! Mom said all she wanted for Christmas was for the girls to sing with her (she played the banjo) and they gave her what she asked for!
This year was the last year to celebrate in the home I grew up in. My parents sold their home to my brother and his wife. They bought a neat cabin with about 15 acres and plan to move in January. I'll remember many Christmases at my childhood home with warm memories, food, lots of singing, sitting around the fireplace, looking out at the land as it snowed, talking, laughing, lots of joking and picking on each other, opening gifts, and more. This year as we drove in, it started snowing about 20 minutes before we arrived so the ground was white. It was perfect. I cried myself to sleep the night we arrived. What triggered the crying was that dad went out to check on one of his horses very late, near midnight. I noticed that the kitchen door was opened and looked out at the barn for him. Shortly, he turned the lights off in the barn and I watched him walk the lane back to the house (in the snow). I watched him and welled up. How many times have I watched him walk that lane....I can't even begin to guess how many times...and this time was so special because of the snow and the realization that my childhood home's story has come to an end. In it's place will be many stories for my my brother, Amanda, and their two (soon to be three) children. I read something recently that fits perfectly, so I'm going to close with it.
"Home is the magnet...We rely on home not to change, and it does not, wherefore we give thanks, Again Christmas: abiding point of return, set apart by its mystery, mood, and magic, the season seems in a way to stand outside time. All that is dear, that is lasting, renews its hold on us: we are home again. Is it not one of the mysteries of life that life should, after all, be so simple. Yes, as simple as Christmas. Journeys through the dark to a lighted door, arms open. Laughter smothered with kisses, kiss smothered laughter. And blessedness is the heart of it all. ~ Elizabeth Bowen
Thank God for the truth of this. My childhood home, at Christmas, stood still in time this year as it did every other year that I recall the last 25 years. I have returned there from undergrad at UK, an internship in Columbus, OH, grad school in Johnson City, TN, and presently from WKY. Despite being married and now with two children, what I always held dear as a child...I found again and again there at Christmas. I'll miss it...my journey through the dark, from different places, always took me home at Christmas. I know how blessed I have been to have it there, with two supportive and caring parents inside, always ready to welcome me in from the cold. A new story will start in a couple weeks and I pray God's blessing on it and thank him for the memories and love in my childhood home.
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