Christmas has always been remarkable good to me. OK - that first Christmas after I met Jeanne was a little rough. That was the time I called on Christmas day to talk to Jeanne (a mere month after we had met). Her little brother Michael answered the phone and went screaming through the house, "it's Rodger on the phone, it's Rodger on the phone." I took that as a pretty positive sign but when Jeanne got on the phone she sounded a little down. "What's the matter?," I asked. "I was just hoping you'd call me on my birthday," she replied. I'd actually thought of calling her on her birthday, December 18th, but decided I couldn't afford two phone calls and opted to call on Christmas day. Of course, if I'd known then what I do now, that her birthday often got overlooked with all the Christmas preparations going on, the choice would have been obvious - call on her birthday. Well, in response to her vain hope of the birthday call I explained the one call decision and said, "Guess I should have called on your birthday," to which she replied a rather curt, "How about both days." So, o.k., that Christmas didn't get us off to a very great start, but pretty much ever since then every Christmas has been great. There's been the little glitches. I was telling my dad tonight about the time Jeanne and I looked at each other at about 11:30p on Christmas eve and said, "We're done - it's an all-time record, 11:30p and we can go to bed." On the way to bed, Jeanne said, "didn't you get a bike for somebody?" Well the bike was still in a box in the garage, and any of you who know me know that at my best, I don't put things together all that great and at midnight, after putting Christmas together all night, putting anything else together was near impossible. 11:30p turned into 2:30a before I knew it, so it turned out not to be a record after all (actually, it might have been the latest Christmas Eve ever). But, those little things aside, Christmas has been a special time in our home, a wonderful time, filled with happiness and contentment, very little complaint, lots of games and fun and strangers, and family and food and JOY. I've thought more than once it's certainly been more than I deserved and how did it ever turn out to be so good. Well, the answer to that became apparent last night. After 31 years of marriage, during which Jeanne and I have been at least above average communicators, I found out the secret to all of our great Christmases and I've got a picture to prove it.
So, I live with Mrs. Santa. It doesn't change anything. I'm as committed as ever and don't even think my expectations for a Christmas present have changed, it's just one of those little life surprises that you smile about and keep on going. Besides, she's a pretty darn good looking Mrs. Santa at that.
