" Can I take it off now?"
Rocky did not like his Christmas sweater last year, perhaps because he is definitely not a Georgia Bulldog.


The rain let up today. I'm grateful it stopped. A good-sized group attended our Christmas Poems and Stories at the Moss Library in Hayesville tonight. Three women writers, Shirley Uphouse, Glenda Barrett and Brenda Kay Ledford read delightful stories. I enjoyed every one of them. Shirley's story was about a Christmas wish from a young girl who wanted a horse of her own, much the way I was when I was a kid. Glenda Barrett wrote a touching story about Mamaw, her wonderful grandmother. But Brenda Kay had us laughing out loud with her hilarious story of the 90 year old woman and the biker. Brenda Kay has a wonderful true mountain dialect that enhances her storytelling and her reading. Our only open mic reader was Richard Argo who read his always interesting and quirky Christmas Letter.

It hasn't seemed much like Christmas at our house this year, but when I drive down to the center of our little town, it reminds me of a Christmas Card. The courthouse square is decorated and all the shops have white lights, and I get that warm feeling inside I associate with the holy days.

I spent some time in the local bookstore today and wished I had the time to select a book, go back to the Dessertery with a cup of coffee and read while the sound of carols filled the shop. But hurry, hurry, I must because I don't yet have my gifts wrapped. I've done no baking, nor made the cornbread dressing I'll take to my sister's for Christmas dinner.

Tonight we are watching a Christmas concert by the Three Tenors. I love their voices, but some tunes they just shouldn't sing. It is comical to hear them belting out "Jingle Bells." That song wasn't meant to be sung by opera singers. Their rendition of Amazing Grace and Silent Night, however, rivals that of heavenly angels' singing.