A WEEK OF WONDERUL

Tonight is Sunday, November 22nd. I just want to tell you that I have had some wonderful, exciting happenings this past week. These events that I will tell you about are not necessarily in the order of their importance, but rather in chronological order. On Thursday afternoon Corinne called me and invited me to go to Opryland Hotel to a special evening that she had been invited to attend. I, of course, was delighted to accept and away we went. If you have not been to the hotel at Christmastime then I feel sorry for you. It is magical. It is delightful and there is no where on earth that is more beautiful. It is the entire Christmas Spirit personified. We watched the lighting of the trees where, with the flick of a switch, millions of lights illuminated the trees, shrubs, windows of the hotel and most of all the breathtaking nativity. The animals looked like real sheep with their woolly bodies. The donkey looked as if it was so proud to be carrying Mary on it's back. Then we see the entire scene of the manger, Mary, Joseph, all of the wise men and the whole story of the birth lay right before our eyes. As if that wasn't enough for one joyful evening we saw the Trees of Christmas display inside the hotel. Corinne had decorated the Dollar General tree and it was just as it should be - charming and fun and pretty. The reception was just to die for - men in white coats serving pasta dishes and carving roast beef and ham, wine to drink, a table of pastries that looked like a page from Martha Stewart's magazine. Then to top it all off we saw the Rockettes Christmas Spectacular and believe me it is spectacular. We left there so full of the Christmas Spirit that I am ready to decorate the tree, put up the red bows and drink boiled custard and sing "The Twelve Days of Christmas".

The next thing that was the big highlight of last week revolves around Kim. I picked her up on Friday at noon time to go to Goodpasture to see Jackson Smith in his Thanksgiving Program. I walked into her house and she was ready and waiting for me - hair freshly shampooed and looking so pretty (Samantha had been there for a cut and color and it was perfect), her pretty yellow blouse, earrings, necklace, bracelets, rings, and make-up. She was just beautiful and best of all for the first time in many months I saw my Kim. My heart just jumped for joy and I said a very quick, silent thank you to the Lord for what he has done for Kim in the past few weeks. It is amazing how she is slowly and surely being able to come back to us. I know that we still have not completed the journey. I know that more healing has got to take place. All of that I am so very aware of but I know this my Thanksgiving and my Christmas will be the happiest and the merriest of times and I have to thank God for that. As I have said over and over in this Blog --- God is good - all the time.

By the way, Jackson Smith was the Narrator at the play - dressed in complete Indian attire and he said every word of his part perfectly and we clapped until our hands were red.

One more thing - Goodpasture girls beat Lipscomb girls in basketball for the first time in my memory and our Courtney scored 18 points.

How's all of this for a week of happy memories?