Putting a Refuge on a List

We're set for Christmas Eve, assuming we're in Dallas on the 24th. I bought three dozen jalapeño and pork tamales from a reliable source today, so all I have to do before the 24th is get the ingredients for chile con queso and buy some good Mexican beer and life will be good. I will be in a position to celebratge Christmas Eve in the tradition of my family. Of course, we're not sure we will be in Dallas on Christmas Eve. We might be deep in southeast Texas by then. If so, I'll probably take an emergency ration of tamales and chile con queso. I can skip the beer.

But, odds are that we will be here on the 24th and that we will head out the next day, stopping in Houston to enjoy my sister's cooking as she feeds a large group of folks who don't have family to spend Christmas with and/or lack the means to be with family or who cannot afford a meal. She had a very small "windfall" recently, thanks to her efforts to protect an acquaintance from some thieves. As is typical of her, she's spending most of the little windfall not on herself but on other people who who need either friendship or a helping hand or a little of both. She is the sort of person you read about in the paper this time of year: someone who, despite being unable to work and living on an incredibly meager income, often spends what money she has on people less fortunate than she is. If I had just half her goodness and had the heart to do a fraction of what she does for others, I would be a very, very good human being. I suppose that's why so many of us, family and friends and strangers whose lives she has touched, love her.

Christmas, for me, is a convenient time to think about what sort of people we all should try to be, not because some magical being threatens us with damnation if we don't, but because it's simply right. I suppose we wouldn't have this convenient time if it weren't for religion, so I'll throw a bone to any religious readers of this post by saying religion has had a few positive influences on our lives. But, of course, I loathe the crass commercialism that has come to envelope it.

Anyway, it's nearing Christmas and the one time each year that we can close the office, in total, for an entire week. I am looking forward to that. And I'm looking forward to getting out to some coastal refuges and to seeing all manner of birds and other interesting creatures. Aransas National Wildlife Refuge is on our list!