Conversation

Right around this time, forty years ago, I was a single mom with a really smart daughter. She was getting in trouble at school because she was smart and thought she should be afforded a superior status. That wasn't going to fly at home or school.
We came to an agreement that her gifts should be used for good, and she was tasked with how to make that happen.
Her idea was to adopt a small care home for Christmas, so she helped me bake goodies, we sewed simple stockings, and she made these Christmas cards.
The week before Christmas, we visited the care home, and she distributed thirty stockings with cards and hugs. She chatted with everyone and told lots of people she had never met before that she loved them.
Every year until she left to be an exchange student, she cooked up a bigger and more involved plan and an updated card.
I kept one set of the cards all these years.