The last time I saw Dorothy Wyckoff at White Oak she was meeting with the hospice people for Gene. He was Aunt Mildred’s financial advisor, so I have known him and Dorothy for more than 30 years. She handled the tickets for the concert series founded by David Cromer many years before I retired. Is it OK to call acquaintances that one has exchanged pleasantries with for three decades friends? I think so; hope you agree.

People complain about the stores playing Christmas carols and decorating their buildings before Thanksgiving. As Lions, we had to start preparing for Christmas for our Visually Impaired Persons (VIPs) early in order to get it all done in time. Fran started cross-stitching ornaments in October; I cut them and the cardboard backing out just yesterday. The VIP recipients ask if we have an ornament for them again this year!

Fran and I also design and print individual cards for each of the 75 residents at the Lions assisted living home near Black Mountain. We carried them and the contributed sweaters and coats up to McCune Center when we joined our son Thomas for Thanksgiving in Asheville. Other Lions are preparing the gift bags and buying the poinsettias we give to our local VIPs. We have also printed Christmas cards for them. All of this will come together at our Lions Christmas party, after which we will deliver the gifts to our local VIPs. Oh yes, we will bring non-perishable food items in lieu of presents for each other; they will be delivered to the Thermal Belt Outreach Ministry.

Of course, we are still recycling your used eyeglasses and buying eyeglasses and exams for qualified VIPs who need them. And of course, we depend on your contributions of the necessary dollars to make all of this happen. (Columbus Lions Club, P.O. Box 121, Columbus.)

Looks as if I have been given another Christmas. As I write this, I am looking forward to Tuba Christmas, tuning the big Steinway concert grand while Art Brown and James Bryan set up the chairs on stage at the high school for the Community Chorus. This time, they are under the leadership of one of my favorite people, Anna Marie Kuether. I understand that they will have a brass ensemble again; it seems they always offer additional treats for us!

I am also anticipating with pleasure Music in Landrum, offering Miles Hoffman playing his viola for us again on December 17, the 114th anniversary of the Wright brothers’ flights at Kitty Hawk. That’s important to this pilot and airplane designer, for I could not have done either without them! Not to mention Schroeder of Peanuts fame, who always reminds us of Beethoven’s birthday on the 16th.

I have experienced a lot of Christmases, and I am thankful for the memories of all of them. From my boyhood, I remember cedar Christmas trees and feasts at Mama Rippy’s house with many of my aunts, uncles and cousins.  I cannot forget my first one away from home, in the Air Force at Cheyenne, Wyoming, for the blizzard of the century (1948). I could not afford to come home 2,000 miles away, so I remember that year as the one I bought presents for everyone, thereby learning that is indeed more blessed to give than to receive. Christmases just got better and better as I married and we adopted two children. Now they have children, so the blessings multiply.

I hope you will enjoy a Christmas with family and friends to make yours memorable, too.   

If you like these columns, they have been gathered into books, available at the Book Shelf, Amazon, or from me. Christmas presents, perhaps?