i've been going through old photo's lately pulling pictures of little so that danny and marshall can make her a graduation video. it was something i did for biggums which was a huge surprise but of course this won't be such a surprise for adds.

...just one of the many drawbacks of not being the firstborn.

sifting through my stacks of picture boxes (that i will one day go through and
actually organize...creative memory style) i came across this folded newspaper clipping...



so this is the story,
one year when the girls were small , cliffie and i packed them up and
went to downtown oviedo for the annual christmas tree lighting.

.... in a small town, a christmas tree lighting is a big deal, believeyoume.

arriving late, with stroller and toddler in tow, we made our way into the crowd to vie for the best possible spot. but it seemed like the entire town was there to see the lighting of the giant tree.

majestically it stood on the front lawn of the lawton house, a sweet little two story wooden house with a wonderful wrap-around porch.

weaving through the crowd, cliff spied the empty front porch and made a quick bee-line with both girls...he had found the A spot! a perfect view of the tree .... a perfect view of all the people.... right where you wanted to be. feeling pretty proud of himself, he smiled and motioned for me to join him.

but all too quickly the music started and the ceremony began. as i stood rooted in my spot, out of the lawton house stepped the entire oviedo high school chorus.
they began singing beautiful christmas carols.
as all eyes turned and were fixed on the porch.
ray lucas took some really great pictures of the tree that year but by far i think this was his best one...




















p.s. you really need to click on the picture to appreciate the moment...