How Did December Get Here So Fast?

Seems like Thanksgiving was just yesterday, and there is still some white meat from the turkey in the fridge. No matter how small a turkey you get, there's always something left. And I sent our company home with leftovers, too.

My husband and I are still talking about C and her family moving to Las Vegas. We just can't imagine not having C close by. That little girl has made such a difference in our lives, she has no idea. I was talking to her mom tonight, and it seems that C has got it in her mind that after she moves away, her best friend L will take her place in my heart.

My own heart cracked a little bit when her mom told me that. I told her mom that I will do my best to make C understand that no one could ever take her place. My husband and I have included her best friend L in some of the things we've done with C just because we thought C would enjoy having her with us. I had no idea that C would even dream that we wanted L with us so we'd have a "second C" in our lives.

There is only one C in this world, and I've tried to tell C that over the years since we've known her. I have explained to her that every person on this earth is special for the simple reason that we're all unique, every one of us, and we all have special gifts and something to offer to this world. "Even criminals?" -- that was her response to that statement of mine, and she was only in the third grade at the time. I told her that even criminals had a gift, except they were choosing to ignore their gift and were focusing on doing bad deeds instead of good deeds. It seemed like a reasonable explanation to a third-grader.

And now little Miss C is in the 9th grade, and this will be her last grade in this area. Her mom said she's hoping to stay here with C till the end of the school year, then join her husband out in Vegas--- he's got to start the new job by the 19th of this month.

I'm glad we've planned a lot of special days with C for this month, and now that we know this will be her last Christmas here, we'll be planning even more days for her during the Christmas break. Two of the Christmas surprises for C were planned for both her and her best friend L, but my husband and I will now make arrangements for extra-special days for just the three of us. We don't want to push her friend L away, but we do need to make sure that C knows just how very extraordinarily special and precious she is to us.


I spent most of today running errands. I always do Christmas shopping all year long, so by the end of September, I've got packages wrapped and cards written out and everything is ready to be mailed. And I always think I'm ahead of the game. (Man plans, God laughs. Or in this case, Woman plans...) Trouble is, I always think of one more thing to get, one more thing to look for, one more decoration to make the dining room table look over-the-top gorgeous.... and off I go, in search of just one more thing. And of course you never find just one thing.

So that's what I was doing today, searching for special napkins for our New Year's Eve dinner, and looking for festive embellishments to use on the beautiful glass-jar candles I found for the party favors. It's the party favors that take so much time..... finding just the right things, and then making them just a little more right. If my dad heard that, he'd be telling me (in Italian) "Leave it alone.... leave it alone... it's fine just the way it is." My response to that is that I don't want something that's just "fine." I want something that's memorable, so our guests walk out the door with a brilliant smile on their face which tells me that they're so glad they accepted our invitation.


Memorable. This will certainly be a memorable Christmas, with it being C's last holiday with us. Unless, of course, we fly out to Vegas and spend Christmas there next year. I wonder how I could decorate a desert?