A LITTLE BIT OF HALLMARK

We had a lot of snow the other day.  My husband was shoveling and so did I, for a short bit, and then I walked for exercise.  As it became dusk, I was reminded of past Christmas Eves when we would carry a lantern and walk with the boys in the woods, singing carols as we went.

This was supposed to be patterned after the Hallmark commercial of a man and his daughter who welcomed in Christmas from a beautiful viewpoint on their mountain. Sometimes it was lovely for us too, being the only ones out in the snow in the quiet night.  The first year we did this made wonderful memories for us.

Then the troubles began to seep in.  Sometimes there was driving rain instead of snow; it was soggy, windy, and miserable.  Or there was the year we tried to take our exuberant and untrained dog with us on a leash, or the year the outside cat followed us too far and was too tired to come back.  There was mud.  There was cold.  There was wind.  Eventually we started moaning about the prospect of going out in the dark.

The last couple of years, my son and his wife arrive very late on Christmas Eve to spend Christmas with us, so I just stick the lantern outside the house to greet them.

And when the weather is nice, like the other evening, I sing to myself.