Mostly True Tales

New Years Eve is alive and well here at the Amazing household. Bonnie is having a slumber party of 6 and Sarah has a guest as well.

Eight girls, Marcia and Lucy, make 10. It’s just Monti & I, roughing it in a house overun by women! Monti doesn’t seem to mind.

Well, I must have been, Santa was very, very, good to me. That’s why I haven’t posted anything new this week, I’ve been too busy playing with all my new toys.

All is well here at Casa de la Amazing. The Kids are suffering from overstimulation, the dogs have been good to the Christmas tree, the taxes are paid. Life goes on. Minute 58 of the Golden Hour.

I treasure these drawings. Here is tonight’s Christmas greeting from my youngest daughter, Sarah.

I hope you enjoy this drawing as I do.

Look back on your life and remember what it was like to be 9 years old, I sincerely hope you can. If you have children older than this, look back on when they were 9. If your children are younger, I envy you.

Each moment of our lives only happens once and is gone in an instant. Forever.

Tomorrow, Sarah will be a different person than the person that drew this picture. Here is a snapshot from the time-line of my Daughter’s life.

This just in… Bonnie’s basketball picture. This isn’t a normal school picture. This is additional picture that is only taken for the basketball team.

What you see before you is a Warrior. A champion of justice. A person that knows right from wrong and will stand up for what she believes in. She is a Freshman on the Junior Varsity Basketball Team. She is my Daughter, and I am very proud.

Today is my Birthday. I was born on this day in 1961. For the past year when people have asked me my age, I have often replied (just for fun, because that’s the way I am), “44, like the gun.”

So this year, I go from revolver, to automatic. I’m 45 years old.

Man, is it weird.

The timing of this date has a lot to due with why these last 5 weeks of the year, from Thanksgiving, to New Years, represent, what I call, “The Golden Hour.”

This year, there are 38 day in the Golden Hour. Today, which is just about over, is day 27 of 38. Minute 43.

Seventeen minutes left.

Seventeen minutes to correct the mistakes, finish the unfinished, evaluate commitments and progress, set goals for the new year, and plan for the future.

Seventeen minutes left and I’m 45.

Brian, you better get your butt in gear.

And people wonder why I’m sometimes depressed this time of year.

It’s not really depression, but rather, cognitive thought, and self evaluation, which I think is healthily to a degree. It certainly also, is disappointment, for what I have not achieved this year.

But, tomorrow I begin again, and I try harder. I reevaluate and insure my goals are realistic.

This is the Golden Hour.

It begins, with Thanks.

Then, age, for both Marcia and I.

Then, appreciation, giving, hope, remembrance.

And finally, the end, which is also the beginning.

This is the Golden Hour, minute 43.