A Roller Coaster Day

I’m sitting here in the sunroom tonight.  I’m listening to Christmas music sitting next to the Christmas Tree.  It looks beautiful, and it is in a perfect place.  Since we live on a corner lot, you can see it from the road.  The sunroom has three sides that are all windows and it is sitting toward the back.  It’s the only room that a nine foot tree can fit in, and it looks great.  So, this morning I got the tree out and put it up before the Tech – Ga game.  I said this was a roller coaster day and it was.  One of the lows was the game.  Tech’s defense was terrible as usual and it couldn’t hold a good Ga team.  So for the 10^th time in the last 11 years we lost.

One of the highs of the day was decorating the tree with Sheryl.  We talked about our ornaments and the history behind some of them.  It was a great time building good memories for our first Christmas together.  She brings such joy to my life.  Sometimes I think that I don’t deserve her, but then I realize that God gave her to me, so it doesn’t matter what I deserve.  Anyway, the high of the day was spending time with her as we decorated the tree and took a golf cart ride this afternoon.  Tonight we were able to finish up some more decorations and then watch some TV.

Emotionally it was an up and down day as well.  Putting the tree up and getting out some of the Christmas decorations stirred up memories.  They were good memories, but today being Julia’s birthday, the memories were mixed as I thought back on times past.  I did talk with both of the girls, just to check in on them.   I’m sure they were dealing with memories of their own, but they seemed to be doing OK.  I know that this Christmas is going to be hard for them because we won’t be together.  Last year, this tree was in Hilton Head and we all decorated it.  It’s hard thinking we won’t be together.  I am so grateful that I do have Sheryl, and that our love blocks out so much of the pain that I might feel.  The girls don’t have that luxury, and I feel for them.

But the highs exceeded the lows today.  Maybe I am getting too mellow in my later years.  The sting of defeat wasn’t so great this year.  The tree looks great, and it represents a symbol of new life, and new growth.  That’s what I am after, and I am well on my way to finding it, even in the midst of some turbulence.  Turbulence during this season is to be expected, but I have my eye on the prize and someone to walk with me through it all.  This is going to be a great Christmas.  I just know it.