Our first this year

This is what I saw this morning as I looked out the window!  Well not really, this is what I saw out of the airplane in Alaska as the bush pilot dipped his wing when we flew from Haines to Glacier Bay National Park.  It is an example of melting glaciers in Alaska.  BUT we do have our first COLD spell here in Naples this fall/winter.  The temp glared a cool 47 as I opened the door to get the paper.  I have no complaints as my smart phone (for a not so smart guy!) shows South Bend with 18, Jamestown with 31, St. Paul 24, Sandy with 19, Madison with 21 and we go up with Rapid City at 51 and Mesa at 60.  Again the smart phone shows that when I head out for 7:30 tennis tomorrow to play tennis it will be 47 again.  The forecast was for a low of 41 so perhaps we lucked out.
I hope all is well in places that our family is enjoying.  I say that because I think back to the 50s and 60s and as we all know it was a different world.  Aside from Dad's Farmers Union bus trips to New York and DC most family and news were pretty close to home, ND.  In the 50s for sure.  In the late 50s and early 60s, as I lay on the barn roof looking west and then looking up to the jet trails in the sky I had no idea our family would enjoy places like Naples, Mesa, Holiday Island, Sandy and of course travelers like John in the army and Helen in the Air Force there were FAR away places like Italy.  Well I could include John Lee who schooled for a year in Germany, Travis who spent a semester in Washington DC and Cynthia who spent half a year in Rome.

Great place to play "kind of the hill" after the snow plow goes past!!!
I am guessing Dad had the chains on the car!
Have NO idea what one would do if you met an oncoming car!

        By the way I was too lazy, and I did not want to wake Terry up, so I did not grind more coffee but instead went with what I had and my FP is not impressive this morning.  Don't get me wrong, it is certainly better than the church basement Luther League egg coffee but not up to my standards!

I find myself, more than in the past, thinking back on Christmas years and years ago.  My first thoughts are of Christmas on the farm with some of those tiny trees and the packages on top of the kitchen cupboards.  Then the mind goes back to Christmas when my children were growing up.  The late nights at work at the School for the Deaf where I had the key to the wood shop.  It was there that I made the oak night stands that the boys still have and there that I made the toolboxes that they may still have.  Then it jumps to St. Paul where I can still hear the screams of delight as each one unwrapped part of the new Apple computer and printer.  I am sure we overspent on that Christmas but for sure it was worth it.  I have no complaints as I know life changes but Christmas certainly is different now.  Terry and I have Christmas music on and some decorations up and it is fine but for sure not the same as having little kids in the house with their anticipation dripping from every word and move.  Don't think I am wishing for little kids in the house now!  Now Christmas is not so much about presents but about being with family and friends and taking in events.  I am not down playing the real reason for Christmas which of course is the wonderful birth of Christ, it is a given that Christmas is all about Jesus but we also know that it is more than that in our culture.  It is about lights, music, parties, friends, family, decorations and more.  For me it is also a time, perhaps more than other times, to remember back on people in our lives who are no longer with us.  People like Gail, Mom, Dad, Ronald, Janet, Mike and I know a host of other family and friends.  One of the ever lasting memories of Christmas is spending time with Grandma and Grandpa Lee in their farm home on Christmas.  For some reason I still can hear Grandpa's hardy laugh as us kids wanted to open presents and Grandpa would want one more helping of lutefisk and lefsa and then of course the dishes had to be done before the presents.  After that it was Dad, Halvor, Grandpa and ?? playing cards and the kids (Halvors and us) playing games before we fell asleep on G & G bed because the card game was not over.  It was usually after midnight that we were hustled into a COLD car for the drive home.  Grandpa's laugh still rings in my ears.  With his head thrown back I still can see Grandpa with joy written all over his face.

I will finish up with a note about life.  In the grade ahead of me in HS was Carl Blumhoff.  Carl and his sister lived with the Seiferts who had a mink farm south of Cayuga.  I knew nothing of his life in terms of why he was not with his parents.  Any way Carl and I played the sousaphone in band together.  He was WAY ahead of me in interest and skill!  Anyway, like so many many of my HS friends I knew nothing of Carl's life after HS.  On Facebook yesterday it was posted that Carl actually died in 2013 at the age of 68.  He had served in Viet Nam and was out of the army in 1971.  He had lived in Sioux Fall SD since 1982.   I had no idea.  Another of the class of 1964 who did not have the privilege of living to what we call old age.
My vanilla (meaning not so great) FP is gone and I end with an Advent wish.  May this Christmas Season be a blessed one for all.