Dear Reader:

Yesterday was one of those bizarre days , especially for Anne, when our personal life seems to fall out of sync with the universe.

Anne had planned to pick me up at 11 to go get barbecue in Ridgeville and then go to Lisa’s Hollowtree nursery as part of our annual gift exchange. Anne wanted to pick up more camellia bushes and I needed to replace Rutledge’s struggling Japanese maple tree.

But her car was stuck at a Toyota Dealership -a simple bicycle roof rack had turned into ” major surgery” and would take hours to complete. So I picked up Anne… and as we were leaving her neighborhood… there was a sign that read… Christmas is doing something special for someone else. Great observation I thought to myself!

When we arrived at the barbecue diner we were not disappointed-after a Covid two year absence-in fact it all just tasted better than ever. I noticed Anne ordered another meal to go but thought she was just taking one home for later.

When we arrived at Hollowtree we beeped to let Lisa know we had driven in and Anne promptly handed her the barbecue meal box. Lisa looked like she might tear up… and she told us her truck was stolen a few days earlier while she was cutting the grass. Someone had the ” gall to steal it right under her nose.”

Quickly we both realized that Lisa needed to tell the story and listen to our sympathetic and encouraging comments and similar story situations too.

It isn’t often we realize, at the moment it is happening, that one intuitively understands the role God wants us to play in helping one of His children! Lisa needed sympathetic listeners and human contact-we were supposed to be at Hollowtree yesterday, despite the obstacles along the way.

We left with three camellia bushes and a Japanese Maple sapling! But what we really got was a sense of giving back to a friend ( A different type of gift but the most important) and a garden of beauty unlike any other… come take a visual trip with me!

And when I got home… a surprise! Jeff and his son had been by cleaning up the yard-minus lots of leaves, for Christmas!

Today is ” game” day for Rutledge and his team-mates! But yesterday the boys toured the Georgia Dome- Rutledge stayed true to his ” orange” -like Dad!

Not to be outdone… Lachlan was named Student of the Month yesterday-Congratulations Lachlan!

So until tomorrow… we always need to be open to God’s directions by following them so we can help another-especially at Christmas!

Today is my favorite day-Winnie the Pooh

All my grandchildren-listen to your Boo as you read this sage advice below-as a retired history teacher I know it to be true!