One year not so long ago, the Christmas tree became an issue of extreme concern. You see the city sent out a letter letting us know that on a certain day, they would collect and dispose of all of the Christmas trees left out on the curb. My husband, not wishing to miss this free offer of disposal became very concerned that we would not get the tree out to the curb on time. I kept soothing him by telling him we have plenty of time to do that. I just needed to carefully remove the tinsel and the glass bulbs off the tree.

Well, the day for the pickup was getting closer and my husband was getting more anxious that we would miss it.  I failed to have the decorations off by the deadline he had imposed. (I never adhere to deadlines he imposes. You would think he would have learned that by now.) He picked up the Christmas tree, held it upside down and shook all of the ornaments, tinsel and pine needles off of it. Then he hauled it outside. Needless to say, we didn’t miss the city’s pickup truck. But I out-foxed him! The next year I bought an artificial tree which doesn’t require curb side pick up and I still love Christmas!!

The boat stopped at the island of Grand Turk.  My sister and her husband wanted to scuba dive and Kyle and I and wanted to do a bit of snorkeling, so we found a beach and put on our flippers and masks and headed out to sea.  Well, not too far out…because I am afraid of drowning and because I can’t keep the mask suctioned to my face.  Apparently you are not supposed to breathe out of your nose.  So there we are swimming and swimming and I see him taking off out to sea.  I immediately tried to follow him but he kept swimming faster and faster.  Some strange man was also chasing after me so I was very anxious to catch up to my husband.

The strange man finally caught me, however; he being the better swimmer and me being the slower doggie paddler.  He tapped me on the shoulder.  I turned toward him and he pointed back toward shore.  He said, “Your husband is back there and he wants to show you something.”  “Oh”, I replied, too embarrassed to tell him that I had been chasing a stranger out to the open ocean.  I turned around and went back to where the reef was closer to shore.  There my husband had a conk shell with a live creature in it.  He had been calling and calling after me but I couldn’t hear him because I was so intent on catching what I thought was him.  All was well however because I found out that I can survive the ocean and my husband is a bit of a romantic after all.  But the biggest lesson I learned was that not every dark haired man that can swim is your husband!…(sheepish grin!)

My son was 11-years-old when he and his friends decided to dress up as girls for Halloween. A couple of boys went as a cheerleaders, complete with pom poms and hair ribbons. My son chose to put on a wig and dress up as his mother, which is me. He put on a blonde wig, make-up, one of my skirts and a blouse. I took a picture of all of the boys sitting in my living room and thought they acted and looked hysterical. That is not the scary part…that came later.

After I got the pictures developed, I took them over to my mother-in-law’s house to show the family how cute the boys were dressed up. (Now comes the scary part!) My husband’s grandmother took one look at the picture with my son in it and said. “Mary, you look so beautiful! This is the best picture of you that I have ever seen!”

Thank you, Grandma. I guess it is true – as we sow, so shall we weep. (And yes…it IS grim!)