By BILL MILBY

Columnist

Yes, the title is intended to be a play on words with the 1943 Bing Crosby recording for Decca Records, “I’ll be home for Christmas”.  The song was sung from the point of view of a soldier stationed overseas during WWII, writing a letter to his family. In the message, he tells the family he’ll be coming home and to prepare the holiday for him…….”If only in his dreams”. The song was written by the lyricist Kim Gannon and composer Walter Kent. If you’re interested in more history about the song, including a lawsuit over who wrote it, look it up on Wikipedia.
Last week I wrote in anticipation of my five kids and eight grandchildren coming home for Christmas and home they came! It was so special to have them all together. We started at one of my sons for a very special Christmas eve celebration and then all day Christmas at the farm ……kids and presents all over the place Christmas morning (but not until I read them the real Christmas story from Luke Chapter 2 to let them know the real reason for Christmas, a birthday celebration for Jesus).
If you remember, Christmas Day was picture-perfect Florida weather right here in middle Georgia. Perfect for playing outside and that’s exactly what we did: Croquet, four wheelin’ , tractor riding, and fishing with three of my granddaughters first thing in the morning; Mary caught three beautiful bass and Evie caught one all within about 30 minutes. * That really started the day off right.
Then later a full dressed turkey dinner (yes we finally corralled one of our free range turkeys for the occasion; see my Dec 2nd column “The turkey’s revenge). And yes, all the kids helped by preparing various parts of the meal, as I said we would last week. What a mountain of dishes, about twice what the dishwasher could handle. But my son in law is a “Dishwasher specialist” so he just kept it running.
Saturday afternoon the party ended with our Connecticut crowd heading to Savannah to board a plane back home.
Yesterday, I did laundry from morning til evening to recover from all the uncles and cousins’ sleepovers and spills. Am I complaining? Not on your life. But I do recall the immortal words of Jerry Walls, Sr. Pastor at Southside Baptist Church “The only sight I enjoy more that my son’s headlights in the drive bringing my grandchildren is the sight of his taillights taking them home after a long day”! Such is life for seniors!
So now it’s time for seniors to rest and recoup and that’s exactly what we plan to do for a few days. Aren’t you glad that God chose to have parents raise grandchildren and grandparents to spoil them? My parting prayer is that next time it’s our turn to host that they’ll all want to “Be home for Christmas again”!
Thanks for reading All About Seniors……see you next week!
*They were delicious; pan fried them Saturday night.
Bill Milby, CSA, is a Certified Senior Advisor and a Director of Visiting Angels® of Macon, a non-medical, living assistance service for seniors. If you have questions or comments about this column you can reach him at william.mercylink@gmail.com or search for us at www.facebook.com/VisitingAngelsMacon.