Today. Yes. Today. A very important day.

We have happened upon a very important day on our calendar each year. That would be correct. It is Tuesday, December 18, 2012, and I am paying tribute to some very special people in my life. Our daughter in law, Mitzi, married to our youngest, Rodney, is celebrating her birthday today. Mitzi is a talented woman who can juggle work, home, and somehow twenty different outside functions, without missing a beat. She is a wonderful mother to our wonderful grandchildren, Kyleigh, Lexie, and Brady. She is a people person and she enjoys time with her abundance of friends. She and Rodney have made a good team and we thank God for her and for her being a part of our family. Time does get away from us. We flew out to Vegas for their wedding and these years seem to have zipped by as we think about Kyleigh, now 18, Lexie, now 12, and Brady boy, soon to be 7. Thanks Mitzi for being a giver. Happy birthday and may God continue to bless you as you continue your busy life. Love, mom and dad.

Today is also the birthday of our Jimmy Jr. Sixteen years ago today we welcomed our first grandson into the family. Jimmy and his siblings, younger twin sisters, Alesha and Amanda, and little brother Alexander Benjamin are blessings from God and we feel honored to be their grandparents, your know, MiMi and Poppy. Jimmy Jr. is finishing up his driving instruction. No. Not playing golf. Driving. As in a motorcar, as they say in the old country. I think he has to wait until March to get his actual license but he does have his permit and he's already been out on the interstate. This is our Lil Jim and he's driving a car. It seems like only yesterday that I held this little bundle of a boy in my arms and rocked him to sleep. Nowadays it's hard to pull him away from his computer games and carrying on a conversation is like, well, you can pretty much forget it. One thing has never changed. Our love for him and his knowing that he is loved. This boy has been such a source of joy in our lives and we do thank God and we ask Him to guide and direct him in the way he should go. Amen. Happy birthday Jimmy Don Jr., love, mimi and poppy.

Last, but never least, I pause to mention the very beginning of our family experience as Marilyn and I celebrate our 48th year as husband and wife. We've come a long way since that below freezing evening back in 1964 when we met in her mom and dad's parsonage where the wood burning heater was glowing almost as red as the cheeks on my face. I was shaking a little. Our dear Brother Milton, conducting his very first wedding ceremony, was shaking a little. I suppose we could have used the Elvis song, "Whole lot of shakin going on." But we didn't. Instead, one of Marilyn's best friends sang what was then a popular wedding song, "Whither thou goest." It's taken from the Bible book of Ruth. You know, whither thou goest I will go and whither thou stayest, I will stay. That kind of stuff. And, that is pretty much our story. We feel blessed to have had these years together. Not all of them have been easy. We've had plenty of challenges along the way, and, just so you know, we still experience them today. It comes with the territory of one year or 48 years. Let me be clear. I declare my thankfulness for this most wonderful woman that God, yes God, provided to me. She is a one of a kind and I know exactly how that famous sentiment feels, "Today I feel myself to be the luckiest man on the face of the earth." Thanks sweetheart for these many years and always remember forever and ever, "Baby, you're the greatest." My love, al.

PS: Please don't send a note asking the identity of the fellow sitting next to her. And, yes, while it is true that I was involved in a head on collision many years ago, I can assure you it did not change my appearance that much! At least I didn't think it did!