2001

Christmas

Christmas at Brenda & Tom's
Front Row: Brenda Mixson Stallworth, Katie Woodruff, (holding Sparky), Andrew Stallworth, Me
Tom Stallworth, Barbara Mixson (Mom)
Morris Mixson (Dad), Coral Stallworth, Jeremy Stallworth, Beth Mixson Woodruff, Zachary Woodruff
Mark Woodruff, David Mixson

Sunday, the day after my birthday, I flew down to Jacksonville Florida where Mom and Dad drove up from Gainesville and picked me up at the airport and then we drove to Brenda and Tom’s house in Blountstown where Tom was the minister of the Baptist Church. The house they were living in belonged to and was directly across the street from the church. My brother David, sister Beth and her husband and three kids drove up from Gainesville. With Brenda’s three sons it was a house full. I was old enough that I got a bed but most the boys all slept on the floor.  The women cooked a wonder feast for Christmas day and made all sorts of deserts. The day after Christmas Mom and Dad dropped me off at the Jacksonville airport on their way back to Gainesville. 

On New Year’s Eve Susan came over with desert and I fixed dinner and then went to the living room where I had a nice fire going in the fireplace and we sat on the couch. I would have called it a romantic evening except there was no romanticism about it, she sat on one side of the couch and I on the other and we talked about yoga and other topics until midnight when we watched the ball drop at Times Square on TV.  Clocking turning to the new year we sat and talked some more, fifteen minutes, twenty minutes, she didn’t seem in any hurry to go home. I wanted to ask her if she would like to stay the night, but she gave no indication, other than not leaving, that she wanted to do so. About 12:30 she finally said she better be going home, and I walked her to the door and said goodbye. In spite of no romanticism, it was the best New Year’s Eve I had in many years. p>

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