1986: Nyssa's First Christmas

Eight months old and into books and bears.
(Click pictures for larger view)

"Late on a sleepy, star-spangled night, those angels peeled back the sky just like you would tear open a sparkling Christmas present. Then, with light and joy pouring out of Heaven like water through a broken dam, they began to shout and sing the message that baby Jesus had been born. The world had a Savior! The angels called it "Good News, " and it was." ~ Larry Libby ("The Angels Called it Good News" in Christmas Stories for the Heart)

December 1986, this is Nyssa's first Christmas and a busy one. A few days spent at Mimi and Papa's in Wichita Falls and then her first airplane ride to Virginia Beach to Grandma and Grandpa's house. We still have this big "Heart to Heart" bear with his beating heart, as with most of our belongings it is "in storage". She was eight months old and already loving books and stories. Goodnight Moon by Margaret Wise Brown was the official go to bed book. We sat in the rocker, looking at the pictures, and reading the simple words every night; every night from the night she was born. It's no wonder her first real word was "moon". How many copies did we wear out? I don't know, but the very first copy was loved well; and now though tattered and taped with pages loose, is tucked safely away, just as the memories of this day are.

"It comes every year and will go on forever. And along with Christmas belong the keepsakes and the customs. Those humble, everyday things a mother clings to, and ponders, like Mary in the secret spaces of her heart." ~ Marjorie Holmes

It's hard to stay awake after so much excitement, even harder when you have a full tummy, a nice pacifier to suck on and the gentle sounds of a beating heart in your ear. Goodnight, Baby Nyssa. Shhhhhhh.