What a glorious Christmas this was weather wise. For almost an entire week, temperatures shot up into the mid-70s with mild winds and no rain. What a treat.
Several of these days neared the all-time 180-year record highs for those dates. Folks flocked outdoors and the walking trails were full of families getting exercise and enjoying God’s beauty.
Ginny and I were blessed to have all three children at home. Ruth flew in from Manhattan where she just landed her dream job as a marketing director for a fashion line. As any parent knows, getting children off the payroll is a huge cause for celebration.
We went to the Mayflower to celebrate and were happy to see that restaurant thriving under new management. Life carries own. We missed the BYOB but were happy to enjoy its traditional seafood fare and accessible, modern restrooms. We ordered an affordable bottle of champagne to add to the celebration.
Jackson is blessed with an unusual number of non-chain fine dining restaurants. The holiday season is extremely important to these private restaurateurs and I was happy to see so many Northisders out supporting them.
Lawrence drove from Austin with his longtime friend Biggs Henry. John lives with us, so we had all three plus two guests, Sam and Chimsi.
Sam is a long-time friend of John’s who attends Trinity divinity school in Chicago. Sam and his roommate Chimsi, from Malawi, saw a chance to get a reprieve from the Chicago cold and came to Mississippi to visit John. So we had a house full.
In turn, Sam is friends with the Dudleys from Ridgeland. Ross and Anna Dudley and their three young children visited several times. Also, joining us was Mohammed, just back from finishing the first part of medical school in St. Vincent. Lots of catching up and guitar playing.
Chimsi was most impressed when I showed him a photo of his former president, Lazarus Chakwera, shaking my hand in my office. Chakwera, a friend of Mike Espy, was fundraising in Mississippi for his ultimately successful run for president of Malawi. I interviewed him and wrote a column.
What are the odds of that? In addition, I had been to Malawi many times drilling water wells back when I was president of Clean Water for Malawi.
Christmas Day was at Terrell and Donna Knight’s house in Eastover on Twin Lakes Circle with its beautiful view of the lake. Their son Connell and his wife Margaret were there with their toddlers Greer and Miles. Connell’s an endocrinologist at the Diabetes and Endocrine Center of Mississippi.
Son Curt was in from Auburn with his girlfriend Darby. They brought five dogs with them. Darby is in vet school. Curt’s got a great job with a booming ag startup designing super sophisticated fertilizers for farmers. He travels all over the U. S. advising farmers and industry specialists on how to deploy these cutting-edge products.
Their daughter Lucy Tucker was there with her adorable young daughters, Adele and Rosemary. We noted how much we missed Ginny’s mother Dottie, my mother Celia, Dottie’s husband Jeff and many others. But pain of those losses was lessened by the young children running around laughing and playing and loving on us.
Ginny’s father, Bob Knight, was there with his wife Linda. They live in Baton Rouge but never miss a chance to join in family celebrations. Linda recently retired as an internist and Bob from commercial flying. They are such a joy to be around. They’ve lived full, rich lives and have great spiritual wisdom to impart to us.
Terrell just retired from a long successful career at CSpire. He’s thriving in retirement working on the family land in Taylorsville. He often volunteers to pick up trash with Locke Ward’s group. In fact, he was helping to clean up the Natchez Trace the day after Christmas. So much good work is done by retired volunteers.
The excitement and anticipation of Christmas was in full force for me but not for toys and presents. It was the anticipation of feasting on Ginny’s beef bourguignon that had my emotions on high alert.
My mother was a master of this French dish which has become a Christmas favorite for the Emmerichs and the Knights. I was so into it that I went shopping with Ginny for the ingredients and helped chop the vegetables. I even tried understanding the cookbooks only to realize that for Ginny the cookbooks are just a rough starting point. She cooks on a level far beyond following step-by-step instructions.
We ate our Christmas day feast late, about 6 p.m. I chastised day munchers to not waste precious stomach space on chips and appetizers. When the dish was finally served, I was not disappointed. It was a masterpiece. I got my perfect Christmas gift.
I received another precious gift. We all got along. No fighting. The house was full of joy. The Fruits of the Spirit abounded throughout the week as we hiked along the Pearl, dined out, sailed the Rez, drove down the Natchez Trace, played tennis, played guitar, watched TV, attended church and the like.
There was my beautiful family, a gift from God, all our history together, each of us knowing the other so well, warts and all yet still loving one another. It seemed like tears of joy never stopped welling up in my eyes.
