Today’s the 5th anniversary of Dad’s passing. I don’t think there’s been a day since then that I haven’t reflected on him and his life.

Here’s to you…

My darling daughter moves from the realm of the ‘tween to the empire of the teen today. I talked with her, and it sounds like she is making the transition gracefully, and hasn’t yet acquired the attitude that so many teens are portrayed as having. She has a great head on her shoulders, and I believe she’ll probably spare us much of the angst-riddled trials that others endure.
Then again, she take after her father, and comport herself across her teens with not the most gracious of travels. It’s a wonder Mom and Dad didn’t put me on the sidewalk more than once for some of my antics! 🙂

Grandma’s stay with Mom came to end today, and it was time to whisk her back to Maryville. This was the longest time we’d been able to spend with her in a long time, and it was wonderful to enjoy her being around us for Christmas.

The trip to Maryville was uneventful. Along the way, we stopped at Frances’ place. It’d been a while since I’d seen her as well, and it was great to catch up a bit. I was able to leave a little of my art behind with her, and to me, that’s a great thing.

This was probably the most widespread family Christmas season I’ve had in a very, very long time. Between the Day family invasion and party, and then the Holley family connections being renewed during our trip, well, I’d color this as one of the best Christmases I’ve had in such a long time. As it should be, the gifts were really not the point of the season — it was the reconnection with family, and keeping those roots intact.

I drove Beck, Sio and Grandma to the Lusk today to visit Dad’s gravesite. This is always such a somber part of my trips home, and there are times when I just dread it. I know that I’ll feel like crap after being up there, but I know I need to keep going too. I need to keep as much of him alive in me as I can, and this is one way of doing that.

This was the first time Grandma had been on that part of the mountain in years. She used to walk all over the top of the mountain a decade or so ago, and it was nice to carry her around up there, and let her see it again.

She and I sat on the bench at the gravesite, and talked about Dad. Becky asked some really innocent questions about Mom and Dad as youngsters, and that opened the gates…. the stories just began to pour out.

It was kinda surreal to me. I mean, I’d sat around I-don’t-know-how-many gatherings with some subset of dad’s family sitting around, each of them telling tales on the others. This was just like that, and really brought back some great memories for me. I mean, with all the brothers Wright gone, there’s just not a whole lot of those reflective sessions happening anymore. Add to that that the stories are all second hand now, and, well…. it’s hard to bump into them anymore.

In a funny kind of way though, this was very healing for me, and I’m really happy that I travelled over to Lusk to see him. I have a feeling that the dread and darkness may be a little less next time.

Beck and I arrived safely on The Mountain last night. A safe trip, but long — made longer by some goofy traffic SE of Nashville. I couldn’t figure out what was going on, but we ended up in a line of traffic that must’ve been close to 10 miles long. And, with that length of traffic stopped, every car in line started to try moving at their own speed. So, we crept along, sometimes at 25mph, sometimes at 70mph. Weird….

We’re here safe though, and spending time with family. That’s the best Christmas present of all….

We’d planned church this morning, and before going, decided to let Sio open one of her Christmas gifts. There was a method to our madness. Beck and I picked her up her own Bible, including getting her name embossed on the cover, and figured that our church’s Christmas Eve service was the place to break it in. She was thrilled, and I believe she’ll find a lot of good guidance from it.

Our service this morning was full — full of folks and full of functions. We had a baptism, singing of carols, and took the Lord’s Supper. I can’t remember the last time I’d been in a service where the Lord’s Supper was offered…. I know it’s been a long time. It was a terrific service, very uplifting and worthy of the season.

We’ve spent the rest of the day preparing for Morgan’s brood to arrive a little later tonight, and getting the eats ready for the Day family Christmas, which we’ll be hosting tomorrow night. That’s always a good time, and I’m sure tomorrow will be no exception!

A couple of weeks ago, Sio was working fervently on some artwork for Archon, a science fiction convention held annually near St. Louis. She entered some art in the juvenile art competition at last year’s Archon, which was received well. This year, she paid for a panel, and displayed some new pieces she has been working on.

I asked her mother how the show went, and here was the response:

Actually, Sio won 2 ribbons for her artwork (Best Entry from a Non-Professional and Best in Show for Juniors (age 13-17) – they made the assumption that she was a bit older since her stuff was on a paid panel instead of on the Juvenile boards) and all four pieces were sold. She is pretty excited now.

I think that’s so cool! Having sold some work this year, I can certainly understand her excitement, and I’m thrilled with the recognition her artwork is getting.

Can the family handle yet another budding artist in its midst?

…in memory of my father.

Or, is that Big Day Family? 🙂

Morgan and his crew, and Beck, Sio and I all piled into our vehicles and went to Purina Farms for the morning. Purina has a great facility, and Beck and I have been there a few times for dog shows and dog agility events. Today though, we did travelled the tourist path, and wandered through the exhibits and barns.

They have a magnificent cat house, built inside one of their buildings. That thing is two stories tall, and had about half a dozen cats in it…. including a Maine Coon Cat! Man, I just love the look of those guys. They are soooo big and fluffy. I expect that if we get another cat someday, it might just be a Maine Coon.

We made our way to the barns and got to see and pet most of the animals you’d expect — cows, horses, pigs, rabbits. It’s a neat walk through the barn, and worth doing. At the end of our walk, one of the farmhands brought a cow in for milking, and all the kids got to milk Bessie by hand. Even a big kid — your humble author — took a turn and put a bit of milk in a bucket. Dunno what I was expecting — I’ve never done that before — but it was like grabbing onto the finger of a dishwashing glove that had been filled with some kind of gelatinous substance. A little weird!

Once we finished there, we got a snack, and walked over to a dog agility demonstration. I was expecting a competition of some kind, which this wasn’t, but it was still enjoyable and a good introduction for the kids to agility competition. They got to count “uh-ohs” that the dogs had along the course, and helped with the countdowns during the course.

After a little rest, we geared up for having a bunch of folks over to see the Virginia Days. Mark and Angie, along with their babies, Mindy, Elma and Jules and Helen all came by for Fortel’s pizza and ice cream. I still think Fortel’s has just about the best pizza in town, only behind the Blackthorn Pub.

After a long day and night of playing with various parts of the family, we collapsed into a well-deserved slumber!