Tempus Fugit

Mia,

This is the Little Drummer Boy on the mantel in our house. He was great-grandpa Sims's Christmas gift to great-grandma in 1973. Ten years later, as a young boy, your Daddy looked exactly like this music box; thick brown hair and blue eyes. Of all the gifts exchanged in the family "music box" Christmas tradition, great-grandma's music box of the Little Drummer Boy was always her favorite. Great-grandma moved into an Alzheimer's care facility two days before Christmas 2007. When we flew to Atlanta at Labor Day to tell grandma and grandpa about you, the Little Drummer Boy came back with us to live at our house. One always knew it was finally Christmastime when, on Thanksgiving night, your great-grandma got out the Little Drummer Boy from his place where he lived all year in the curio cabinet, wound him, and put him down on the kitchen table. The Christmas season always began to the tune The Little Drummer Boy. As long as the music box was out, it was Christmas - he was always the first thing to come out and the last thing to be put away. Today we will put him away again.

How will our world, and our lives, be different the next time he comes out? The biggest one, obviously, is that you will have made your appearance. But I pray, also, that your great-grandma will stay with us long enough to hold you, safe in the knowledge that the Little Drummer Boy remains well cared-for in our home.