Columns

Merry Christmas, everyone! We sing about a white Christmas, and we put out our snowmen decorations, and that is as close as we’re going to get to a snowman this Christmas. Indeed, the weatherman predicts temperatures up to 75 degrees today. Of course, I think that’s a blessing. Outdoor toys will be enjoyed even more, kids will be outside, and more than likely, air conditioning will be running in households. Whatever your preference, I hope that everyone is having a great holiday. Thanks to the generosity of this small town, there should be no children doing without. Several programs are sponsored to give out food and toys for children. I can’t begin to name the number of organizations that have organized or sponsored toy drives or food drives. I believe that every reasonable request has been fulfilled.

United Way of Northeast Louisiana (UWNELA), in partnership with the Northeast Louisiana Bar Foundation, is continuing to offer The Heirship Project, an ongoing initiative addressing the challenges of heir property and succession issues that impact families across Northeast Louisiana, with in-person and virtual options for attendance.

Are you familiar with Dunbar’s Number? Robin Dunbar developed a theory about pack animals, monkeys, lions, coyotes, and so on. After studying them for some time, he realized that across a species, there was a ceiling on how large a single pack would reach.

While the community looks forward each year to the annual Children’s Christmas Program at First Methodist Church, this year those in attendance received a special treat. Rather than the usual Christmas play, organizers treated a standing room only crowd to the most beautiful choir singing traditional Christmas hymns interspersed with Bible verses proclaiming the prophecy and birth of the Savior. After the opening prayer by Reverend Henry Stone, and a welcome by Ann Hodges Richardson and Lydia Payne, the kids opened the program with “Joy to the World” followed by a reading by Jaicee Albright. Also reading scripture verses were Landry Jones, Vera Myers, Eva Parker, and Elle Vining.

It is amazing how much of my childhood I can still remember. I especially remember Christmases as a child. Growing up in a large family, my mother struggled to make sure that we all had Christmas. She struggled, but she did it.

Returning this holiday season to Windrush Gardens at Burden Museum & Gardens in Baton Rouge, Louisiana Lights will captivate visitors of all ages and take them on a journey through illuminated garden rooms, past a sparkling lake and a shimmering tunnel of light on the grounds of the former Burden family home.

There is an epidemic created by our electronics that has caught my attention more and more lately. I see families in my clinic, on ball fields, at church events, and in the aisles of the grocery store all caught by it.

My brother started on the first day of November writing on Facebook something he is thankful for. He has done it every day since. I could do that. It would be easy. I don’t think I would ever run out of things I am thankful for, especially with the size of my family, work families (I have more than one), and my church family – if I started naming names.

In the last week, I’ve been with women crying over a parent’s illness, women worrying about her children, women dancing, women grieving, women holding babies, playing mahjong and women holding each other’s hands. All looking to each other for kinship and help and comfort and understanding, and I cannot miss this one, fun.

So it’s 2 a.m. in a Mississippi hospital room.