Not Your Usual Christmas Day

Actually we had a very nice day even though it was not our usual.  We FaceTimed Logan, Josie and Na'iema for 3 hours - yes that's not a typo.  First we watched N playing with her gifts  - she put together a whole puzzle of her favorite TV character Bluey and then various other arts and crafts. Then Logan was in a talkative mood and went over the movie "Don't Look Up" in great detail which we had hoped to watch but Christmas is a day of NBA basketball from 12 noon to 12 a.m. and Ben remembered that and that's what was on all day - various times watching and getting a walk in and enjoying the cloudless 72F day.  There were other conversations on everyone's phones and laptops with various friends and family. Lots of connecting, a delicious meal and lots of good snacks.

By late in the evening, I realized I had no photo and I did want to have something for our first Christmas here.  I started putting away some things on my sewing table and found this essay Logan had written just 4 months after Sumner's passing.  This is the 2nd draft and so there are corrections his professor made.  Sumner passed away just 6 weeks after he started college and was supposed to visit him there for the first time the next day.  The essay goes on and gets very emotional - never a dry eye when reading it.  His professor published it in the literary magazine that year and encouraged him to major in English which he did for awhile but it was a tumultuous time.  I sent it to him to remind him how steadfast he was when this was written.  His response was "Ugh". But for a guy who over analyzes and still questions himself on everything he does, I thought it might be good to remember his thoughts way back when almost 10 years ago.