Approach to Christmas Eve

Starting only a few hours after winter arrived, the sky over St. Augustine filled with small, stubby clouds that allowed sunlight to flood only small patches of earth at a time. The clouds moved quickly above the earth and illuminated only piece of the earth at a time. There would be the bay in near darkness while the houses on Porpoise Point would radiate in their pastel yellows and blues and mint greens.

That was Friday.

Then all day on the second day of winter, Saturday, the light remained a dim grey making it impossible to know if it was 10:27a or 3:38p. The light stayed grey all day, but the lack of sun did not bring on colder air. We ate inside because of the thick damp air, not because of the cold when we went to Creekside to celebrate Lynda’s birthday with her and Doug and Diane, her friends from Toronto.

The dawn of the eve of Christmas Eve, Sunday, was just the opposite. No clouds. Sunshine falling onto every grain of sand and clump of coquina scattered on both sides of the Matanzas River.

Ronald and Travis stopped by at noon. We visited briefly standing first in the living room then walking outside and all the way around the house before they headed west at 12:30p. Their planned route was to take them west over the St. Johns and then north at some point into Georgia and the west again all the way to Houston County. Hannah had half a dozen friends over the watch a movie, one who spent the night, and Lauren and I watched television.

And so we come to today...Monday...Christmas Eve...a day that holds all the magic of Christmas Day and then more because the nighttime of Christmas seems to be where the enchantment lies.

Max arrived a little after 10a, Lauren and I each went for out for moments of shopping for those last-minute-little-things, then Max and Hannah went to see a movie this afternoon. For dinner this evening there will be the four of us, Max’s friend Lauren, Lynda, Diane, and Doug. I will pick up our order from Gypsy Cab Company at about 6p-- three entrees, fish, chicken and eggplant parmesan, sides of mashed potatoes and tossed pasta --and shortly after that start lit the oak already stacked in the fireplace. We will feast and fellowship and then doze lightly as we anticipate the arrival of first light and the surprises that await.

To each branch at every hearth, we send you our love and our wish for an abundance of blessings on all of you.