The Books We Opened

Every year, Santa brings us each socks, Tic-Tacs, a calendar and a new book (what more do you need, really?).  Here's a list of the books we each pulled from our stockings:
John - Hero by Mike Lupica
Kate - Son by Lois Lowry
Me - Mary Anne by Daphne DuMaurier
Mark - The Minnesota Book of Skills by Chris Niskanen

Mark also receieved a boxful of books from Kate - books that aren't on my bookshelves (yet!):
Hemingway on Fishing by Ernest Hemmingway
Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson
A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens
The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck
Separation of Power by Vince Flynn

Full disclosure: I'm not addicted to exercising (huge understatement).  But I do love walking.  I could just walk and walk and walk.  I prefer to walk outside but...waiting under the tree for me was...the first two seasons of Downton Abbey!  Fourteen hours of viewing before January 6, when season 3 will air.  I've seen most of them already but need to immerse myself through them again and be ready for season 3.  Anyway...my point is not that'll be camped on the couch (well at least for all of it) but that I'll be on the treadmill for the next week.
I've also downloaded, however, audio versions of the three bookclub books that I need to read for...(yikes) January!  So, when I am walking outside, I'll be reading with my ears.

Today is the fourth day of Christmas and things are beginning to calm down.  Sometimes I feel like I made it through the holiday but kinda missed the whole point of the celebration.  Now is the time I'm more reflective.  Now is the time I feel like visiting, not necessarily partying, just visiting.  It's a journey.  I think often, during these 12 days, of the Biblical kings traveling through the night, following that one bright star, removed from all the hustle and bustle.  I will continue to focus and reflect so that on that 12th day of Christmas, I will arrive also.