my careless contagion

Christmas. The word conjures so many memories and so much meaning for so many people. Christmas to me always meant family. Even though my family stopped celebrating Christmas when I was pretty young, we still did things like family trips to Florida (one year it was Omaha, but that was fun, too).  This post contains images from Christmas past. You see the living rooms of the two houses in Hot Springs we lived in. The first house had some pretty amazing red carpet. And red drapes and a couch that had a red floral pattern. Boy, somebody went overboard. Even the walls seem to be glowing red. The other house didn't have any carpeting that I recall. Maybe in one or two areas. Some of my scans are missing, and I'm not sure what happened to them. But they showed one of my most memorable Christmases, which is when I got the LEGO police station. I was thrilled about that, stayed up all night playing with it, and didn't even want to get up in the morning to check my stocking...

This is another post from this summer I neglected to actually post. I don't know why I held back on this one. It's kinda dumb. Maybe that's why. That's a great introduction. So, enjoy! Oh, also, I think there's at least one more from this summer I haven't posted. The last one I think I'll post next year since it feels like a proper middle finger to this year, which felt like reality intruded a little too much. An added note of import: I have prayed about my son's babysitting situation since he was probably one year old. I've never taken it out of my prayers, in fact. When my son's latest babysitter announced her impending retirement, it wasn't much of a shock. It was the fourth time we lost a babysitter. And there is only one person we know who had openings. Sometimes God makes our decisions easy. One choice. I'm probably not smart enough to make a decision with more than one choice, so that's good. Okay, problem solved. Only it...