Let the Good Times Roll

First on the training front....we got a good race on the calendar and we'll get to that in due time....probably around the New Year. I've started pulling together a training plan for this somewhat unique event. When I tell my close buddies this, I get that look like I have lost my last marble....and when I contemplate what it will entail....I may have. With that said, I have not been this amped up for event in some time...and now on to the matter at hand...and there will be class participation at the end boys and girls. ;-)

Watching my kids has caused me to recall my childhood memories. Most of them are fond, but I recall that on at least 2 occasions, during my childhood, that I found myself in the Emergency Room on Christmas eve. Asthma attacks so sever that getting oxygen to my 7 year old body seemed far more important than the gifts under the tree. Doctors working feverishly attempting to dilate bronchial tubes. Despite the these grave times...there were good Christmas times too.

Three years ago, my parents had decided to come to Plano Texas to celebrate Christmas with us. I had commissioned my brother-in-law to have him and my mother-in-law at our house by 6:30 P.M. on Christmas Eve. My mother-in-law would be late to her own funeral and I knew that Marshall's West Point fastidious nature would ensure they were promptly on time. Brenda had fixed some h'or dourves of crab cakes and cranberry salsa. Both Christmas music and the scent of an evergreen candle filled the home. I could hear the rain gentle hitting the cold window pane. The family anticipated something special to happen, but I had kept it top secret of the impended event. Promptly at 7:00, a stretch limousine pulled up to the front of our house. I had arranged for the limousine to take us around the Dallas Area looking at Christmas lights. My parents where astonished, the kids busted out the door in excitement. We arranged the 3 car seats in the limo, piled in and for 2 hours gallivanted around town taking in all the incredible Christmas decorations. My three kids, we're wide eyed with excitement and the impended Santa Clause arrival, momentarily, took a back seat. The grandparents were acting as though they were kids, looking at the lights and laughter filled the car. Me, well, I just took it all in. My joy came from watching the family...loving every minute of it. Renting that limo is the best thing I did that Christmas. The kids still talk about that night in vivid detail, but have real difficulty in saying what the got under the tree. The other day my mom mentioned that the "evening you rented the limo" was one of her best Christmas memories. My mother-in-law said the same thing.

Although spending Christmas eve struggling to breath may not be the best Christmas memory, it makes an evening with my extended family in a Limousine seem oh so much sweeter. Isn't that life? The valleys make the hill tops higher.

Now for class participation: Let me here about your favorite Christmas memory!