Yesterday’s old school game post got me to thinking about the modern game I currently enjoy playing.  It all pretty much started around the time I got pregnant.  I would get up in the middle of the night frequently and couldn’t get back to sleep.  And so I dove into the equivalent of Scrabble with strangers on my iPhone.  I loved playing with this one guy from heaven only knows — New Zealand maybe — because it was day where ever he was and it would be about three in the morning my time.  The guy always beat me!  It was brutal losing EVERY time.  After a certain point I think he moved on to more cerebral waters.  I have some regulars with whom I usually have a game going.  Some are friends I know in person and some I’ve been lucky enough to meet through Facebook.  I’ve only tied twice and I have shamelessly posted a screenshot of my highest scoring word above.  I’m still trying to top that.  I’ve also been trying my hand at playing in French which has been VERY humbling.  As in I believe the gentlemen with whom I was playing might have thought I wasn’t firing on all cylinders.  Still, I enjoy the challenge of playing with people who are better in the hope that I will become better, too.  Tennis great Rafael Nadal said, “My motivation and aspiration is the same, being number one or being number five.  So that’s the truth.  And my goal is the same – it’s to always be happy playing, it’s to enjoy the game and improve always.”  He’s a bigger person … I want to be number one!  😉

When I was four I remember getting this game for Christmas.  I think I must have played it a thousand times with my parents.  I have never cared for math but always loved counting.  When I saw it in a catalog I jumped to buy it.  I had no idea they still made it!  Four years of waiting to be able to play games like this with Maris made this my greatest Christmas gift yet.  We played five rounds tonight and the last was an epic battle to see who would win as we were tied two to two.  The goal is to pick all your cherries off the tree but if the spinner winds up on the overturned bucket you have to put them all back.  I had forgotten about the dog and the bird that make you take two cherries out of your bucket if you land on them.  Maris shrieked with glee as she quickly won the first two rounds.  She lost the third and was incredibly gracious saying, “Good job Mama!”  When I was her age I’d cry when I lost.  We had no screens of any sort — no iPads, no television, and no iPhones.  Just a slowness of time sitting around the table.  It was déjà vu and a cycle of life continuing.  Author C. JoyBell C. said, “Life is a bowl of cherries.  Some cherries are rotten while others are good; it’s your job to throw out the rotten ones and forget about them while you enjoy eating the ones that are good!  There are two kinds of people:  those who choose to throw out the good cherries and wallow in all the rotten ones, and those who choose to throw out all the rotten ones and savor all the good ones.”  I try to cherry pick the good.

When most people think of Christmas, they think red and green.  For me it has always been blue and white.  We have a silver tree with dark blue “swag” that perpetually sways drunkenly because we have cats.  This was the first year my little girl helped me decorate the tree.  Every place we have traveled we always buy a Christmas ornament as a souvenir.  And so I explained to her where we brought this or that and she was delighted.  I know she will come to cherish them even more as she grows older.  It is like revisiting our trips with the placing of each bauble.  As she carefully helped me arrange the ornaments I thought it was no small coincidence that the first one she chose was Notre Dame — the place in which she took her first steps alone.  A Cafe du Monde ornament from New Orleans is hanging next to a trolley car from San Francisco.  A couple in a gondola dangles next to the Eiffel Tower, representing our honeymoon in Venice and Paris.  There is a Santa holding a cactus from Phoenix from the first trip Maris ever took.  Of course our tree has primarily wolf ornaments.  Some of my most beloved we got in Alaska, Quebec, and Santa Fe.  My very favorite ornament I chose to post.  I just cherish him and bought him a long time ago when I was single.  American author Louis L’Amour said, “No memory is ever alone; it’s at the end of a trail of memories, a dozen trails that each have their own associations.”  And so I see our Christmas tree as a tangible display of our life’s intangible treasures — yet another wonderful thing about Christmas.  At the top of our tree is a starfish from Florida.  Ave Maris Stella; Hail Star of the Sea.  So deck the halls one and all, y’all, and be blessed.

“Let’s begin by taking a smallish nap or two,” in the words of novelist A.A. Milne’s beloved Winnie the Pooh.  There is NOTHING better than a Sunday afternoon nap!  Curl up with cats and it’s even sweeter.  I think there’s a form of sleep shaming going on in society, and those who get by with the least amount “win”.  As a kid I viewed nap time as punishment and now I regard it as the highest reward.  Of course most of us cannot take naps everyday.  But sleep is important and those who require more than others should not be viewed as lazy.  Mama was continually embarrassed because Daddy ALWAYS fell asleep in church like clockwork once the sermon started.  Ironically, he loved attending church and said he felt at peace whenever he was there.  I remember one Midnight Mass where a friend and I were the only two non-Catholics in attendance and literally the ENTIRE church was snoring.  It was so funny we giggled like school children.  I was sure the Priest saw us but we could not seem to stop.  And hey, at least we were awake!  I cherish nap time with my little girl — the feel and weight of her small body next to mine, hearing her soft snores, and having her arm wrapped trustingly against my neck.  I know this time is precious.  And so I am off to take a nap with some cats, a kiddo, a one-eyed Shih Tzu, and two wolfies.  We will be all snuggled up together resting for the week ahead.  Sweet dreams to all.

I have been in love with another man since shortly after I got married.  The picture you see here was taken this past Thanksgiving.  He served my little Shirley Temple her very first Shirley Temple.  Eight years ago as a new bride I decided to throw a housewarming party.  My new grandmother in law informed me I simply MUST get Osbourne because “He’s the best.”  I learned that he had been in high demand for the most elite and wealthy of Dallas society for more than three decades.  Quickly I came to realize what a gem this man was.  So many things I didn’t know … how to set up a bar, how to command the flow of a party, where to greet people, etc.  And this darling man took me under his wing and made me feel like a queen.  He deftly placed my newly acquired silver trays, procured the ice, opened wine and champagne, organized the liquor, set out my new linen cocktail napkins, got out all my glassware from the stemmed to the highballs, sliced lemons, limes and oranges, and discreetly arranged for a garbage can to be placed behind the bar at his side.  The next thing I knew the doorbell was ringing and I was frozen.  With a gentle wave of a hand, he had me stay where I was and went to answer the door.  Slight shock registered on some faces as they came in; after all we did not have a million dollar home. Some greeted him like another guest at the party; others with blasé familiarity.  Osbourne took a true command of my party without taking any of the credit for himself and helped me build my confidence.  When I ran out of platters I will never forget he served from my blue plastic TV trays with a panache that would have rivaled any party at Versailles.  He was incredible and I was in awe.  I have since seen him at many parties and he is always my favorite person with whom I look forward to visiting.  I have never known him to be anything but gracious, dapper, up beat, charming and kind.  He reminds me of my Daddy and the kind of person I aspire to be.  Aviator Beryl Markham said, “If a man has any greatness in him, it comes to light, not in one flamboyant hour, but in the ledger of his daily work.”  Every time I have thanked Osbourne for bringing me a drink he has never once failed to say, “It is indeed a pleasure.”  The next time I see him I shall tell him the pleasure is indeed all mine.