Dear Santa,

All I want for Christmas is world peace. That should be no big deal for a guy who can travel the world and deliver presents to a few billion or so kids all in one night.

What a year it has been. Personally, I’ve experienced some high highs and some low lows this past year.

I won’t address the lows because after writing it down, I realized many of the same things could be (and are) said about me. But it did feel good to get it off my chest even if I’m the only one who will ever see it.

Regarding the highest of highs this year, several years of anticipation were realized this year as Carol and I got to meet our granddaughter, Skye, and daughter-in-law, Orie.

The last time we had seen our oldest son, Jonathan Spencer (he goes by Jon, we’ve always called him Spencer) was about four years ago. He was headed for an assignment in the Air Force at Yokota AB, in Tokyo, Japan. He was a single, free-spirited, immature, young man headed for an adventure.

A lot changed for him in four years. He became a husband, father and leader of others.

We had tried to visit them in late 2001; only to have our visit thwarted by a group of spineless, lowlife scum with hearts full of hate.

Things finally worked out so that they could visit this October. That was when I experienced my absolute high of the year.

Carol and I headed to the Charleston Airport to meet their late night flight. We were very early. Anticipation got the best of us.

Carol had been nervous and beside herself for a couple of days. Carol, clutching a stuffed animal, and I waited outside the Charleston Airport security checkpoint.

We finally saw Spencer, with wife and baby in tow. They had been on an airplane for almost 20 hours and traveling for two days.

Carol finally got her chance to meet her granddaughter as we waited in the baggage terminal. I watched as Carol and Skye walked down the airport corridor hand-in-hand. That was my high point in the year. I don’t think Santa had anything to do with it, but it ranks right up there with world peace.

So Santa, world peace would be nice. But until you can make that happen, I’ll just be satisfied with the memory of grandmother and granddaughter and their first embrace.