I was thirty-six when she graced my world with her presence. Her sister…her only sibling…was nearly sixteen. She was a beautiful baby with a head full of black hair and huge green eyes. She was a serious child. She didn’t laugh till she was nine months old. People teased me that the soles of her shoes weren’t dirty till she was three. They weren’t far off. She was our precious and we carried her everywhere.

The first time I came to this restaurant was in 1986 when Hubby #2 was being interviewed to join the local medical practice as an internist. It was my first “doctor’s wife” experience…a role I never really fit into very well. I was very nervous and I’m sure I spent most of the night chattering away while wringing my hands under the table. Things went well though and we soon moved to this adorable mountain town the Rand McNally Atlas voted as the “Most Fun Town in America” two years running…Glenwood Springs.

I came to the mountains Sunday to spend time with my sweet brother and to visit friends. I’ve soaked in the hot springs, eaten at my great restaurants, and browsed in the beautiful shops. I’ve driven around and gazed at the Christmas lights. This is a resort town in Colorado, full of rustic, twinkly good cheer and it has done my heart good to revel in it.

Yesterday was one of those days when things happened that were beyond mere coincidence. There were God moments going on that just couldn’t be denied. First, one of our fellow Ranchers contacted me when she heard I was driving through her town in the mountains. Lin and I have a connection that goes back a lot further than the three years she’s been reading my blog. I knew she was from my home town, but I didn’t know she graduated from my high school the year before me! It was “old home week” as we visited for three hours in the local Starbucks. What a treat that was…thank you Lin for an afternoon of conversation!

832 cookies!!! Yesterday was the great Cookie Baking Marathon with the family. I absolutely love these people…every single one of them. And they are a vocal family. It’s great fun…everyone laughing and talking over one another. The kids running around playing and challenging each other over who iced the best cookie. Christmas carols and the television and electronic games and telephone calls. A great cacophony of joy and raucous noise that weaves the fabric of what constitutes a family.

Ok, disclaimer…I lifted the picture from the Internet when I Googled “Christmas Cookie Fails”. That being said, who hasn’t seen similar results when you’re baking for the holidays? Oh, there are people out there who make perfect…and I do mean PERFECT Christmas cookies. (See Buffalo Baking Co! My dear friend Patti and her daughter Jamie make the most beautiful, and delicious, cookies!!! https://www.facebook.com/BuffaloBakingCo/posts/1338179656203105 ) I’ve tried. Seriously, I have. But I don’t have the patience to decorate dozens of cookies. One, and I’m done.

I’m in Denver visiting family for Christmas. I ran errands yesterday and spent a good deal of time sitting in traffic. That’s something I’m definitely not used to. But, sitting in the car always gives me time to think. I had visited my former coworkers and a family member in the hospital. Then I ran to the mall to get a Christmas gift. As I sat in traffic afterward, the song “When I’m Gone” by Joey and Rory came on the radio and my thoughts immediately turned to Mr. Virgo.

We weren’t much more than children when we met. Both new brides of young airmen stationed overseas, we were thrilled to find our hometowns were in adjacent states. We became fast friends. You do that when you’re a military wife. Your friends become family. Cindy looked extremely young for her age. Seriously, she looked twelve when she and her new husband moved into the flat below ours. She was eighteen. I was all of twenty. We hung out together while our husbands worked. We did crafts. We shopped. I think we tried our hand at knitting. We shared our families when they came to visit. Her “Nana” became my “Nana”…my mom, her mom. We shopped a lot. We didn’t buy much, but we shopped. It wasn’t long after Cindy arrived that I became pregnant with my first child. One afternoon, Cindy and I were at the hardware store buying batteries for a flashlight when the jolly clerk asked her, “Are you having fun shopping with your mummy?” I whipped around and asked, “Excuse me…what did you say?” He repeated that he was asking “my daughter” if she was having fun shopping with her mum. I nearly died! I mean, really…you feel so awful about yourself when you’re big and fat and hot and sweaty…then someone mistakes your best friend as your daughter. And you aren’t two years apart! It was a turning point in my life. My youthful innocence was left on that hardware store floor.