SINCERE THANKS to friends for their phone calls and email messages (yesterday).

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Fifty pictures (more or less)  and the photographer wasn’t happy with a single one. A year without a haircut and ten months of isolation from the Coronavirus leaves the eighty-five-year-old looking every bit her age. She is happy to report that “picture taking” and “blog making” was an enjoyable way to spend Christmas day.

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Couldn’t sleep, up early. Found a package outside my door (because I don’t have a chimney).  Watched/listened to Christmas messages on Trinity Broadcasting Network.

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“Yours truly” does not “Zoom” or “Skype.” She doesn’t shop on the Internet and “pick up” at the store. Her “dumb phone” is seldom used. Household tasks are neglected; healthy meals are seldom prepared. Her computer is a God-semt blessing in this time of isolation due to the Coronavirus pandemic.

While documenting families from A to Z, there are wonderful memories of the time spent with family and friends. Many “cousins” have gone to Heaven while details (albeit brief) are recorded in an Ancestry.com database. Grandchildren and grand nieces and nephews are able to see their ancestry fanning out across a computer screen.

Alderfer, Beachler, Boyd, Brubaker, Cool, Cover, Denlinger, Eikenberry, Fisher, Frantz, Garst, Grisso, Hamm, Hay, Ikenberry, Jamison, King, Kreide, Landes, Landis, Lavy, Metzger, Miller, Mohler, Neff, Neher, Onkst, Paddock, Quattlebaum, Riffey, Royer, Showalter, Shoup, Smith, Spitler, Swartz, Traxler, Ulery, Vandiver, Wagoner, Wenger, Yoder, Zug. (The short list.)

My “Good Samaritan” might be embarrassed if I called him a Christmas Angel. Via the marvel of the Internet, my Good Samaritan has helped solve computer problems–and Ancestry.com problems. I feel so helpless; I wish I could reciprocate.

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Three–or more–of the gifts are from my Christmas Angel. Earlier this year, she sent an array of masks–and has suggested (time and time again) that I “get out of the house; go shopping.” Or, she would implore: “Take a drive; go through a ‘drive-in’ and treat yourself.” Scaredy-cat old lady hasn’t wanted to venture out in public–not even for a Dairy Queen treat. Here are a few words from her most recent email message: “And you really can reduce your risk by ordering online for curbside pick-up. Even if you STILL go inside for a few items you want to pick out yourself, you can get the bulk of your order pulled and put right in your car. A lot less for you to touch in the store and time for you to be in the store.” 

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“It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas…”

Home for Christmas?  “Only in my dreams.”

“Holly, jolly Christmas, It’s the best time of the year.”

Another package just arrived.

“Here comes Santa Claus, Here comes Santa Claus,…”