Well, our Christmas break has ended, and we are back in the saddle and hunting quail. I love Christmas with all of the pretty lights. However, I have to agree with a long deceased guest from Oklahoma who once told me, “Son, the prettiest lights that I ever see at Christmas are the taillights of my children and grandchildren driving out of my yard.” Martha and I didn’t even have any children, much less grandchildren at the time, and his comment made absolutely no sense to me at that time. Well, I understand it a lot better now!

I will have to say that this may have been our calmest Christmas dinner and gift opening ever. Martha’s dinner was its normal outstanding meal, and the munchkins actually sat at the table and ate rather than whining about gift opening. It helps that they are getting older. CB Cox V who is only five might have been the only one who could have gotten rambunctious, but I believe that he was a little tired from his early morning trip down the stairs to see what Santa had brought him. Evidently the old saying about a bundle of switches and a lump of coal is a thing of the past for this younger generation. However, I remember my Dad saying how excited he was to get fruit and one small toy; and Santa sure brought me more than that. However, the number and price of toys have sure increased from the days of my youth.

In years gone by, gift opening at the Cox household resembled a pack of ravenous wolves savaging a downed prey. Wrapping paper would be flying in every direction with screams coming from every corner. When everything had been opened in about two nano seconds, no one had a clue who had given them what, and the boxes and paper had to be carefully sifted through to make certain that no gifts had been stuffed in the trash bags. Don’t laugh as we had to learn that the hard way a few years ago.

However, this year gifts were opened calmly (Heather helped CB to see who had given him what), but he insisted on opening his own presents. I think that his Mom frowned on my offering to loan him my knife as I feared that he would not finish opening his presents before my bedtime. If 70 years old is the new 50, then 9:00PM is the new midnight as far as this old codger is concerned.

Faith in God and love of family are the two driving forces in my life, and they both come together at Christmas. Our only downer was that for the first time ever, we will not get to see our middle child, Cadie and her family over the holidays, as she has two teenage sons who are great athletes. They either had basketball games, practices, or tournaments every single day during their Christmas break. Maybe it’s just me, but I believe that high school athletics have gone overboard in the past few years.

Well, I did have one more little Christmas downer. I had to run into my pharmacist’s store just before Christmas to pick up some meds. The young lady there asked me so many questions that I was fairly certain that she was trying to decide what kind of Christmas present to buy me. Alas, there was no gift from her. I will not claim credit for this last comment, but I read it recently and it really tickled me, maybe because there is a very real element of truth in it.” My wife says that I only have two character flaws. The first one is that I don’t listen to her, and the second one was some other crud that I didn’t hear.” Martha would probably agree with that. I hope all of you and your families have a happy, healthy New Year!