Well, it’s Wednesday Dec. 21 and it’s only a few days until Christmas – four to be exact. Most people right now are doing their last minute shopping or waiting for a few remaining deliveries from UPS, FedEx and the like.

It’s amazing how fast each Christmas goes by. It seems just like yesterday that Sophie was experiencing her first Christmas. Now she is 18 months old and seems like a completely different person (in a good way, of course).

I hope that as each Christmas goes by the love in our family gets stronger and stronger for one another, and just like how most good times go, we say, “Wow, it’s already over?” or “It’s already Christmas again?”

That’s all I want for Christmas this year.

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Maritza our housekeeper said today that she thinks that the last rains of the rainy season have gone away, and that there will only be “mucho sol” now. I’m looking forward to it. However, even though I’m not a big fan of when it rains for four or five days on end, or when it’s foggy and gloomy for a week at a time, I do like the rain. I like going to sleep here and listening to it bounce off the roof of the house. And how every now and then the walls will creak in the night as a gust of wind tries its best to blow us away.

The last couple of days when we drove home through the hills and valleys outside of San Ramon toward the house that we are renting, we smelled fresh flowers even though the windows were rolled up.

I wonder if it’s because the flowers are ready to come out and play now that the rainy season is over too.

Today Sophie did just that and it was so much fun. She and I stepped outside and went straight over to our favorite orange tree. We’ve been pulling oranges off of it for many weeks now. The only ones that are left are up really high. In order to grab them I have to put Sophie on my shoulders and then jump. She loves it and lets out deep belly laughs as my feet move away from the ground.

Far on the other side of the yard there are some homemade benches that are set up on top of some cinder blocks that sit under some tall over-hanging trees. Today Sophie sat in my lap and we listened to the rustle of the wind through the leaves and ate three oranges, in the coolness of the shade. They tasted good and were very tart and sweet.

It was fun. I hope I don’t forget that!