My favorite Christmas Song....

I should qualify that...my favorite Christmas song beyond the carols of the season.

Dolly Parton - Hard Candy Christmas.

Don't know why the song moves me. It so bluesy, accepting Christmas as it come.

It was a good Christmas. My sister hosted Christmas Eve. Mom, stepdad John, brother Scott, uncle Randy, my sister (and hostess) Tab, niece Tyfini, and Tab's use-to-be boyfriend Ron.

Tab's new condo in Camas is cute. We brought the baked beans from Izzy's. Ham, rolls, potato salad...our typical Christmas Eve fare.

This is really the only time of the year my family gathers. We see my mom and John through the year a few times. They live in Aloha and we in Gresham. My brother, Scott, lives with Mom and John, but it's hit or miss whether we see him the few times a year that we make it over there. Tabetha is across the river - an email away - we don't see each other much, but we do email. Uncle Randy is a mile from our home. He had Jodie and I over for Salmon dinner a few months ago, a big thing because we don't normally see a lot of each other.

It's not to be over analyzed, as I tend to do. It was a good visit with my family. I always feel that since we all happen to gather just once a year that things should be more magic and that we should feel closer, but that is never the case because of the fact we don't gather more.

Last night was a good meal, good visit, exchanging gifts. The trip home on HWY 14 in the heavy rain and a dark stretch of highway was a cause for us to pray. We hydroplaned. I could not see the road. Emmanual - God was with us.

We came home and watched Jodie's favorite old move - "Yours, Mine and Ours." Eric helped pack out the gifts - he knows now, at 11, that we honor the spirit of Santa, but that Santa is not real. I tried to help Jodie wrap the gifts for him earlier in the day. We do our best job wrapping, though our cerebral palsy gets in the way.