A Room with a View

This morning, I'm sitting at the kitchen table in my husband's boyhood home in Upstate NY, and this is what I'm looking at through the sliding glass doors just behind the table. Talk about a room with a view! I didn't even need to stand up, or even try very hard, to set up this shot. I just sat in my chair, pointed my camera, clicked, and voila!: I captured proof of the existence of God. Who else could create something so beautiful?

It's no wonder that my husband loves coming here so much. He could just sit and stare out at the lake for hours at a time.

We spent the day here yesterday doing some Christmas decorating-- hanging wreaths and garlands, and putting lights on the trees out front--so that when the different family members who plan to come home for Christmas arrive, they'll be greeted by Christmas cheer. Some of my husband's sisters celebrate Christmas with their families in this house. We usually have Christmas at home, and then the next day we come here and stay until around New Year's. I know I've mentioned the magic of this house before, and all of the great family memories it has helped to create (see "Making Family Memories, July 7). Even though my husband's beloved parents are no longer with us, when we're here in this house, with its spectacular views of the lake, we feel their presence keenly. And we know how happy it would make them that we still gather here to celebrate the birth of Our Lord. They loved this house, and it would please them so that it's still our "home base," the place where all the Pearls go to laugh and catch up, and to make sure the numerous first cousins stay close, despite the many miles that separate them.

Today, we get back on the road and head to my oldest son's cute little house in the country, which is about three hours from here. We're going to be staying there for about a week and a half, through Thanksgiving. There is not a room in his house with a view like this one; but that house has something so incredibly beautiful and amazing in it, something that, like this lake, is also proof of the existence of God (two somethings, actually): of course, I'm talking about his adorable, blue-eyed, chubby-cheeked twin baby daughters. My husband and I enjoy the lovely view here; but I think we're going to enjoy the view of our granddaughters' precious little faces even more.